Retailers in China are already slashing prices of the newest iPhone, just over a month after its release.
Sellers on Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba's Taobao and JD.com are offering discounts on Apple's latest iPhone 15 ahead of "Singles Day," the Nov. 11 shopping festival that now covers several weeks.
Price cuts on the two sites ranged between RMB 300 to over RMB 1000 ($41-$137) below Apple's official retail price in China, according a check of the results by Fortune. (Apple's China website lists the cheapest model of the iPhone 15 at RMB 5999, or $821).
Alibaba, JD.com, and Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment.
Steep discounts are common ahead of Singles Day, as e-commerce sellers try to attract Chinese shoppers. Nor is it the first time retailers have offered iPhones at slashed prices: In February, sellers cut prices of the iPhone 14 Pro range, then the latest model of Apple's smartphone, by about $109 for 11 days.
Yet those discounts came about four months after the iPhone 14 Pro's release. The price cuts for the iPhone 15, by comparison, are coming just a month after the phone's release in September.
Sluggish iPhone sales
iPhone sales in China may be slowing down, according to several analyst reports. Data from Counterpoint Research released last week report weaker-than-expected iPhone 15 sales in China, with the latest model of Apple's smartphone underperforming compared to previous models.
“China’s headline numbers for the 15 series are in the red, and this is a reflection of the broader decline in consumer spending,” Mengmeng Zhang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, wrote in the research note.
Analysts at Jefferies also predicted a decline in Apple's sales in China, and forecast lower-than-expected global shipments of the iPhone 15 this year, according to CNBC.
A potentially sluggish launch could add to Apple's struggles in China, which contributed about 20% of the company's revenue last year. Most recently, the iPhone maker has grappled with new rules from Beijing requiring any program sold on Chinese app stores to be approved by the government. That could remove thousands of foreign apps from Apple's Chinese store.
Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise trip to China last week, including meeting with senior Chinese officials like Wang Wentao, China's commerce minister, and Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang.
The company also faces renewed competition from Huawei. Counterpoint Research in a separate report noted that the domestic phone manufacturer was one of the few brands to record year-on-year growth last quarter, primarily driven by the Huawei Mate 60 phone and its new, potentially sanctions-evading, processor.
Huawei is targeting the premium smartphone market at a lower price-point. While the specifications of Apple and Huawei's phones are different, the base model of the Mate 60 retails at about $752, compared to the iPhone 15's base price point of $821.
Singles Day
The mega-shopping event of Singles Day is perhaps the next big indicator of how Chinese consumption is recovering. Once a unofficial "anti-Valentine's Day" for single friends to meet up, companies like Alibaba have transformed the date of Nov. 11 into a multi-week long shopping frenzy. Singles Day sales have regularly surpassed those of Black Friday in the U.S.
Singles’ Day sales for Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall begin on Tuesday and the e-commerce giant is expecting to attract about one billion consumers this year.
Chinese consumer spending post-pandemic is recovering at a slower-than-hoped-for pace. A previous signal for consumer confidence—the National Day Golden Week holiday in early October—gave a disappointing result, with domestic travel coming in at just 4% above pre-pandemic levels, and far below official forecasts.
