Apple Responds to Huawei Threat by Slashing iPhone 15 Prices in China (2024)

Apple has launched another round of steep discounts on iPhone 15 models in mainland China, in a bid to boost sales in its biggest smartphone market and counter a strong showing by Huawei.

The discounts run from May 20 to May 28 and are steeper than the price cuts that Apple introduced in February.

For example, on its official store on Alibaba Group's Tmall site, Apple is offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select models. A top-of-the-line 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max can now be bought for 7,949 yuan ($1,199), compared to its 9,999 yuan price tag when the device was released in September.

Meanwhile, an entry-level 128GB iPhone 15 model is currently being offered at the discounted price of 4,599 yuan ($636), down from its previous price of 5,999 yuan.

Apple has become dependent on discounts to shift ‌mid-cycle iPhone 15‌ stock, with strong competition from Huawei's latest high-end series of Pura 70 phones said to be partly behind the most recent drop in sales. Apple's previous discounts in February were thought to be a response to growing interest in Huawei's homegrown Mate 60 series, which launched last August.

Apple sales in China dropped 13 percent to $20.8 billion in the quarter ended December, falling short of the $23.5 billion predicted by analysts.

However, despite a gloomy outlook for 2024, Apple's previous promotions in February are believed to have helped counteract its sales slowdown in China. Reuters reports that Apple's shipments in the country increased by 12% in March, a significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when the company experienced a 37% slump in sales.

Article Link: Apple Responds to Huawei Threat by Slashing iPhone 15 Prices in China

Price cuts to drive sales? Increased offers for trade-ins?

Apple, you dropped the car project. Stop acting like an automaker.

They're doing similar things in Europe, although only through their third party retailers. Not some shady retailers, but like really the big electronics stores and official Apple authorized resellers.

Like the 10th gen iPad has seen a ~25% discount since January, way ahead of the recent price cut.

And iPhone 15? Regular big discounts at nearly all carriers. I got one ~40% off compared to Apple's official retail price.

Vote with your wallet and prices go down as long as it isn't just a handful of people doing it. It has always been that way and always will be.

Streaming companies will learn the same eventually.

pugxiwawa said:

Maybe don’t release the same product over and over and over again…

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Apple can't copy themselves...

Hopefully this is just the beginning of Apple realising that it cannot continue to ramp up prices with mediocre upgrades alongside laughable base specs and increasingly damaging competition. I think iOS 18 (with all the joys of AI Siri - oooh!) and a minimal iPhone upgrade after another year that has been financially difficult for many will drive the message home further.

Incidentally, I completely get the fact that we can't expect amazing upgrades every year - I don't expect that. The problem is that Apple still counts on people wanting to upgrade every year, and on them being able to afford that.

ThatsMeRight said:

They're doing similar things in Europe, although only through their third party retailers. Not some shady retailers, but like really the big electronics stores and official Apple authorized resellers.

Like the 10th gen iPad has seen a ~25% discount since January, way ahead of the recent price cut.

And iPhone 15? Regular big discounts at nearly all carriers. I got one ~40% off compared to Apple's official retail price.

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Yeah got my base 15 from Amazon UK for £649 and used Amazon 5 months interest free offer.

incidentallycheckout said:

Competition is always good for the consumer!

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incidentallycheckout said:

Vote with your wallet and prices go down as long as it isn't just a handful of people doing it. It has always been that way and always will be.

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Such wisdom for early Monday morning. You must be new here.

Many of "us" will passionately argue for reduced competition, very much against laws to facilitate competition (even if we are not where those laws can impact us), etc as if having as little as a single "company store" is good for consumers (and it has NEVER been throughout all of history).

Hopefully, we all wake up someday and realize the best thing we can do for ourselves- as a group- is always encourage more competition, more stores, more businesses having to compete for our business. They all- even this one- want the money MORE than they want to retain the "stuff" they sell. Will we ever come to understand that the greatest consumer power against even "inflation" is the simplest power: saying "NO" as a

Stop paying too much and prices will come down. Stop paying inflating prices and they will stop inflating... hold steady and they will even deflate. Else, just pay whatever is asked and sellers will just keep raising prices. If the market will readily bear higher prices, the market will get higher prices. When the market says no, higher prices will see discounts. If the market still says no, higher prices will become increasingly lower prices.

Havalo said:

Majority of us knows that it is obvious that Timothy is taking the biscuit with the prices...

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I don’t even know what that means.

For people that are into the whole "ecosystem" thing.. Huawei does some amazing stuff... They make Apple and Samsung look archaic.

Xiaomi is getting closer, though they do cripple hammer certain things about Android for whatever reasons.

When Jim Farley came in as CEO at Ford, one of the first things he said is that Ford isn't competing with Toyota, GM... whatever.. they were competing with Chinese automakers. You poke at Chinese companies and it just seems to motivate them.....

pugxiwawa said:

Maybe don’t release the same product over and over and over again…are you expecting them to completely redesign the way a phone looks every year. At this point most smartphones have almost the same look just like other mature products.

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Lucky ducks over there.

Must be nice to have actually reasonable pricing forced upon Apple

pugxiwawa said:

Maybe don’t release the same product over and over and over again…

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Will not be suprised if they sell apple

Tito360 said:

Everything will always come to an end and a new company will emerge

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a m u n said:

Apple has nothing to worry about; even Huawei’s CEO uses an iPhone.

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Past success isn't currency for future success. That way of thinking is dangerous and kills companies.

There are signs... some massive investors in Apple are ever so slowly divesting themselves.