Apple Inc is offering rare discounts of up to 500 yuan (US$68.50) on its latest iPhone models in China, as the US tech giant moves to defend its market share against rising competition from domestic rivals like Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
The four-day promotion, running from Saturday to Tuesday next week, applies to several iPhone models when purchased using specific payment methods, according to its Web site.
The flagship iPhone 16 Pro with a starting price of 7,999 yuan and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with a starting price of 9,999 yuan would see the highest discount of 500 yuan. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus would receive a 400 yuan reduction.
Photo: Reuters
The discounts come as consumers remain cautious with spending amid China’s slowing economy and deflationary pressures, with the country’s consumer inflation hitting a five-month low in November last year.
Apple is grappling with a declining market share in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, where local manufacturers have intensified competition.
Huawei has emerged as a particularly strong challenger since its return to the premium segment in August 2023 with locally made chipsets.
Huawei had cut the prices of a variety of high-end devices, including mobile phones, by up to 3,000 yuan over the weekend on one of China’s leading e-commerce platforms.
Apple briefly fell out of China’s top five smartphone vendors in the second quarter of last year before recovering in the third quarter.
The US company’s smartphone sales in China still slipped 0.3 percent during the third quarter from a year earlier, while Huawei’s sales surged 42 percent, according to research firm International Data Corp.
The Apple promotion also includes discounts of 200 yuan to 300 yuan on older iPhone models, as well as other categories of products such as MacBook laptops and iPad tablets.
Customers must use designated payment methods including WeChat Pay (微信支付) or Alipay (支付寶) to qualify for the discounts.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
Taiwan’s natural gas supply remains stable through the end of May, despite rising concerns about potential disruptions to Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan has completed preparations for natural gas supply and shipping schedules through the end of May. It has also made plans to increase natural gas imports from regions outside the Middle East in June to ensure a stable supply, it added. Taiwan sources natural gas from 14 countries and is not solely dependent on the Middle East,
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
RSS