Is Apple feeling pressured by Huawei? Apple's prices have taken a significant nosedive!

During the Women's Day promotion on March 8th, the iPhone 15 has once again received a significant price drop, with discounts exceeding 1,000 yuan.

According to media reports, Tmall and JD's official Apple flagship stores have lowered the prices of the iPhone 15 series models (iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max). Some models are priced 1,300 yuan (180 USD) lower than usual.

A check on Wall Street News found that after stacking store coupons and platform coupons, the price of the same iPhone 15 Pro 256G on Taobao and JD's Apple official flagship store is 7,999 yuan and 7,849 yuan respectively, while the official price on the Apple Store remains at 8,999 yuan.

The price reduction of the iPhone 15 series models this time has all reached the thousand-yuan level, which is more significant compared to the promotional activities earlier this year.

Previously, the Apple China official website rarely lowered the official price of the latest phones during the Lunar New Year, announcing the "Welcoming the Spring Limited Time Offer" from January 18th to 21st. Among them, the price reduction of the four models of the iPhone 15 series reached 500 yuan, and the starting price of the iPhone 15 dropped below 5,000 yuan.

Some media analysis points out that the latest iPhone 15 series is not as popular in the Chinese market as before, with sales consistently lagging behind previous generations, partly due to the global economic downturn and the strong performance of Huawei's smartphone business.

IDC analyst Will Wong stated:

"According to IDC's preliminary data for January, the pressure mainly comes from other Android suppliers, as we have seen Apple's sales drop by around 10% year-on-year, while Huawei has grown by three digits during the same period."

Apple is "Trading Price for Volume"

With two significant price reductions in just three months, it shows that as domestic smartphones collectively strengthen, Apple has to "trade price for volume" to stabilize its market share. The latest Apple Earnings Report shows that in the fourth quarter of last year, Apple's revenue in the Chinese market was $20.8 billion, far below analysts' expectations of $23.5 billion, marking the company's worst performance in the Chinese market in history.

Apple stated that in this quarter, sales increased in all regions except Greater China, where sales declined by nearly 13% compared to the same period last year.

The data also indicates that Huawei made a strong comeback in the Chinese market in the first two weeks of 2024, ranking first in smartphone sales.

Lowering prices seems to have become Apple's main strategy for "self-rescue" in the Chinese market.

Some media outlets pointed out that in 2022, during the 618 shopping festival, the highest discount for the iPhone 14 was nearly 2000 yuan, making it the best-selling smartphone during the 618 promotion that year. This demonstrates the significant impact of price reductions on Apple's market share stability in China.

Ivan Lam from Counterpoint Research stated:

"Apple is providing short-term promotional prices to third-party channels as an early promotion for International Women's Day on March 8."

"We have observed that iPhone sales in the Chinese market are increasingly dependent on promotional activities."

Wall Street News previously mentioned that to focus on the smartphone business and seize the AI smartphone market, Apple abandoned its 10-year plan to build a car. According to insiders who spoke to the media, the next generation of iPhone and iPad software updates will include a range of new AI features, and the next version of macOS (code-named Glow) may also introduce AI features.

According to a report by market research firm Counterpoint, 2024 is expected to be a crucial year for generative AI smartphones, with shipments exceeding 100 million units.