Recently, the price reduction of Apple's iPhone 15 series has attracted attention.
On the evening of May 31st, the highest discount for Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max at JD's self operated flagship store was 2350 yuan. At present, JD's self operated stores have slightly greater price reductions than Tmall's Apple store flagship stores.
Institutional analysis shows that in the first quarter, there was a simultaneous decline in both quantity and price of iPhones, resulting in poor sales performance. Apple is facing increasing challenges and pressure from competitors, and urgently needs to upgrade and innovate in all aspects of software and hardware to attract consumers.
iPhone 15 Series Great Price Reduction
On the evening of May 31st, JD.com announced that 618 will increase Apple's price reduction. The highest discount for Apple products at JD.com's self operated flagship store, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, is 2350 yuan, and the iPhone 15 Pro will be directly reduced by 2000 yuan. This flagship store is an authorized Apple dealer.
Source: JD official Weibo screenshot
According to Apple's self operated flagship store on JD.com, from June 1st to 3rd, after a price reduction, the iPhone 15 Pro was priced at 5949 yuan; The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at 7749 yuan. According to the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store, the price of iPhone 15 Pro starts at 6099 yuan; The price of iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at 7949 yuan. Compared to the selling price, the maximum price reduction has exceeded 25%. The official iPhone 15 series has dropped to its lowest price in history.
On the evening of May 20th, the Tmall 618 promotion was launched, and the official Tmall Apple Store flagship store launched a major price reduction. From May 20th to 28th, there was a strong promotion for the iPhone 15 series phones, with an official flagship store discount of 300 yuan and a Tmall subsidy, with a maximum discount of 2300 yuan.
According to Tmall data, in the first hour of Tmall 618 sales, Apple's transaction volume exceeded 1.5 billion yuan.
The China Securities News reporter noticed that the official flagship store of Tmall's Apple Store shows that the iPhone 15 series is still on sale. For example, after adding official discounts and Tmall discounts, the high-end 1TB version of iPhone 15 Pro Max was reduced by 2250 yuan; The high-end version of iPhone 15 Pro can be reduced by up to 2300 yuan in price; The starting price of the 128GB version of iPhone 15 is 4599 yuan, with a price reduction of 1400 yuan.
According to the official flagship store of Tmall Apple Store, purchasing designated products from 20:00 on May 31 to June 20 can save up to 2300 yuan. The products participating in the promotional activities during the above period include approximately 203200 units of the iPhone 15 series, including a total of approximately 137211 units of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and a total of 66037 units of iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
Source: Tmall App
Some netizens have expressed that why has Apple lowered the price of its iPhone so drastically this year? A netizen said, "Why did I lower the price after buying it all?"
Industry insiders say that Apple's products have been heavily promoted, indicating weak sales in the Chinese market. They hope to boost sales through promotions.
According to IDC data, in the first quarter of 2024, Apple's market share was 15.6%, ranking fourth in the domestic market, with a year-on-year decrease of 6.6% in shipment volume. Despite continuous price adjustments and promotions, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max being the best-selling model during the Spring Festival, Apple is facing increasing challenges and pressure from competitors, and urgently needs to upgrade and innovate from all aspects of software and hardware to attract consumers.
The overall competition in the mobile phone market is intensifying
Shanghai Securities believes that in the first quarter, there was a simultaneous decline in both quantity and price of iPhones, resulting in poor sales performance. On the one hand, it is due to the impact of last year's base effect, and on the other hand, the overall competition in the mobile phone market is intensifying, which has an impact on the demand for iPhones.
Zhang Mengmeng, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, believes that Apple is facing fierce competition from Huawei in the high-end mobile phone market, while also facing pressure from manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi to aggressively price their products. Although the iPhone 15 is an excellent device, there has not been a significant upgrade compared to the previous version, so many consumers do not have the intention to replace it temporarily.
From the global market perspective, iPhone shipments performed poorly in the first quarter. IDC released a report stating that global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 7.8% year-on-year to 289 million units. Samsung's shipment volume in the first quarter was 60.1 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7%, ranking first in the world in terms of shipment volume. Apple still ranks second in the world, but its shipment volume in the first quarter of this year decreased from 55.4 million units in the same period last year to 50.1 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 9.6%.
IPhone sales have declined, and Apple's smartphone business revenue has declined. Apple's financial report shows that the revenue of the iPhone business in the first quarter was $45.963 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 10.46%. In the first quarter, Apple's revenue in Greater China was $16.372 billion, a decrease of 8.08% compared to $17.812 billion in the same period last year.
