Is Apple (AAPL.US) iPhone 16 not selling? Chinese online retailer early discount promotion

Zhitongcaijing · 09/18/2024 07:25

The Zhitong Finance App learned that, according to reports, before Apple (AAPL.US)'s new iPhone 16 series officially went on sale, online retailers in China had already lowered prices.

Pinduoduo (PDD.US) began selling the iPhone 16 Plus with 512 GB of storage. The price was RMB 8,999 (about US$1,268), which is a 10% discount compared to the official price of 9999 yuan. Meanwhile, the 128GB iPhone 16 is being sold at an even bigger discount of 11%.

The Taobao platform owned by Pinduoduo and Alibaba (BABA.US) offered a 4% discount on the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro Max, reducing the price by 400 yuan to 9,599 yuan. Alibaba's Tmall shopping platform provides buyers with the option to pay in 24 installments without interest.

The discount indicates weak demand for Apple's new phones in China. China is the world's largest smartphone market and one of the most competitive markets.

The Apple iPhone 16 series will officially go on sale on September 20, but it is not equipped with the new artificial intelligence service Apple Intelligence, which will launch in the US next month.

Apple will launch the English version of the artificial intelligence tool in several markets in December, while versions in other languages, including Chinese, will not be available until next year.

On Monday, it was reported that the iPhone 16 series pre-order sales volume for the first weekend is estimated to be about 37 million units, down about 12.7% year-on-year from last year's iPhone 15 series first-weekend sales.

Apple has always faced fierce competition from Chinese rivals in the Chinese smartphone market, such as the resurgence of Huawei.

According to data from research firm Canalys, Huawei's smartphone shipments in China increased 41% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, while Apple iPhone shipments fell by about 2 percentage points during the same period.

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