iPhone 15跳水30%，库克已退无可退

凤凰WEEKLY

2024-06-04 13:23Posted on the official account of Beijing Phoenix Weekly

The price of the iPhone 15 series has dropped again. This time, the home game is on JD.com.

Following the 5.20 day of Apple's Tmall flagship store offering the largest price reduction in history, the discount is as high as 2300 yuan, people are rushing to buy at the same time, and they have also reached an expectation in their hearts, that is, the price of the iPhone 15 series has to be reduced.

At 8 p.m. on May 31, the second round of promotion on the e-commerce platform was officially launched. Some people who chose to "wait and see" during the first round of price cuts have been unable to hold back their eagerness and rush to the Apple Tmall store.

To their disappointment, there were no more offers than in the first round. After the official discount and superimposed platform surprise coupons, the iPhone15 basic version is still 1400 yuan cheaper, and the discount for other models is the same as the first round.

But the "surprises" remain. Jingdong 6·18 was fully opened that night, in Apple's self-operated flagship store, the price of iPhone 15 Pro fell below 6000 yuan for the first time, and the 128GB version came to about 5900 yuan. If you are a JD PLUS member, you can also reduce another 30 yuan.

Compared with the launch price of 7999 yuan, the price of iPhone15 Pro has plunged by nearly 30%.

Some people predict that the price of the iPhone 15 series will drop before the day of June 18 really comes.

For a while, Apple was red-eyed, and Tmall and JD.com also participated in this price race. As for the majority of users, they are happy to see it. Some people choose to "buy early and enjoy early", and some people lie dormant silently, waiting for the lowest price to attack again.

On June 18, which has a cycle of nearly a month, Apple is destined not to have a peaceful life.

“跌跌不休”的iPhone 15

The iPhone 15 can be said to be Apple's favorite model with a price cut.

In January this year, less than half a year after the release of the iPhone 15 series, Apple started a "price reduction journey". On the Tmall platform, after using Apple's official coupons and Tmall coupons, the price will be reduced by up to 1,000 yuan. This is also the first time that the official channel price of iPhone 15 has fallen below 5,000 yuan.

Two months later, on Women's Day, the Apple flagship stores of Tmall and JD.com lowered the price of the iPhone 15 series at the same time, and some of the models were priced at 1,300 yuan (about $180) lower than usual.

Who would have thought that after another two months, Apple released the "largest price cut in history" on Tmall.

Specifically, the starting price of iPhone 15 is 4599 yuan (the original price is 5999 yuan), and the discount is 1400 yuan. iPhone15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro also have discounts of thousands of yuan and varying degrees. The iPhone 15 Pro Max 1T version has the largest discount, and the price has been directly reduced by 2250 yuan, minus the price difference, which is enough to buy a Redmi K70.

The big promotion started at 8 p.m. on May 20, and within one hour of the sale, the transaction amount exceeded 1.5 billion yuan. In contrast, Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo and other brands only exceeded 100 million yuan.

Some people sigh that the apple is still the same apple. As long as the price is right, slow charging, poor signal, etc., are not a problem.

Like a chain reaction, the iPhone 15 series has also been reduced in price to varying degrees on platforms such as JD.com and Pinduoduo.

As of now, in JD.com's self-operated flagship store, the price of the iPhone 15 basic version is slightly higher than that of Taobao. But the price of the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max is already lower than that of Taobao.

In Pinduoduo's 10 billion subsidy channel, the price of the iPhone 15 series has "plunged". After the subsidy of 10 billion, you can get the iPhone 15 128GB version for around 4300 yuan.

Whether it is the official Tmall store on behalf of Apple, or JD.com, which is authorized by Apple, or Pinduoduo, the price reductions of the three major platforms all show that Apple is really "bloody" this time.

The price reduction has indeed had a significant effect, raising Apple's popularity by at least one level.

"Phoenix Weekly Finance" found that although the price of Apple's offline retail stores has not dropped, there are many people who go to observe and experience, and the goal is directly aimed at the iPhone 15 series.

Apple's offline retail stores

On social platforms, many users said that they had already bought the iPhone 15 series.

"The previous iPhone 12 was used for 3 years, and the memory and battery couldn't hold on. When I saw the price reduction of the Tmall store, I took it directly. Netizen Xue Xue said bluntly.

There are also many people who choose to wait and see, after all, the "front" of June 18 is long, and maybe the "king bomb" is still behind.

"Squeeze toothpaste" innovation, is it better to reduce the price?

Since the release of the iPhone 13 series, Apple's mobile phone has gradually been criticized as "squeezing toothpaste". Coupled with the rise of domestic machines, new features emerge one after another, resulting in Apple's reputation becoming worse and worse.

Last year, a post titled "What is the experience of changing fruit fans to Android for the first time in ten years" appeared on the hot search and resonated. Many people said that in many aspects, including user experience, domestic mobile phones have surpassed Apple.

Still, what people say about not buying apples, like "Schrödinger's cat", is an event full of uncertainty. Once Apple cuts the price and the price is reduced, it will immediately turn into a "real fragrance" machine.

It's not hard to see why. After all, in recent years, the price of domestic mobile phones is getting higher and higher.

The starting price of Huawei Mate60 series and Pura70 series has come to 5499 yuan; OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi are different, but it basically costs about 4,000 yuan to buy the starting version of the flagship. The price of the folding screen is closer to the price of 8,000 yuan-10,000 yuan.

On May 28th, vivo released its flagship vivo X100 Ultra, which is claimed to be a camera that can make phone calls, with a starting price of 6499 yuan, which is more expensive than Apple.

Some analysts pointed out that after the Snapdragon Summit in October this year, with the release of the Snapdragon 8Gen4 platform, the threshold for ordinary consumers to get Android flagship models may be significantly raised. In this situation, the Apple mobile phone, which has been reduced to 4000 yuan, has a lot of temptation.

What's more, Apple's product power in the high-end market is still there.

According to a recent report released by Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 15 Pro Max topped the list of best-selling smartphones in the world in the first quarter of 2024. The second and third places are the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, respectively.

iPhone 15 Pro

In addition, there are three points worth noting in the report.

First, Apple and Samsung occupied all the seats in the world's top 10 best-selling smartphones in the first quarter of this year, while brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi were not on the list.

Second, this is the first time that Apple has achieved hot sales of high-end models in an off-peak quarter.

Third, Apple's Pro series accounted for 50% of Apple's total sales in the first quarter of this year, double that of the first quarter of 2020. This shows that consumers are increasingly gravitating towards high-end smartphones and the powerful features and experiences they bring.

Some users who bought the iPhone 15 Pro Max at the first time bluntly said to "Phoenix Weekly Finance" that from all aspects, this mobile phone is considered the top configuration. Especially in terms of shooting, it reached a professional level.

According to IT analyst Sun Yongjie, when measuring the strength of a mobile phone manufacturer, best-selling models and ASP (average selling price) are hard indicators that must be taken into account.

Specifically, according to Counterpoint Research data, Apple's ASP in the first quarter of 2024 will be as high as 900 US dollars (about 6,520 yuan).

In comparison, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo's ASPs in the quarter were about 1,151 yuan, 1,862 yuan, and 1,528 yuan after being converted into RMB.

The average price of mobile phones of about 1,000 yuan has not reached the ASP average of 370 US dollars (about 2,681 yuan) in the global mobile phone market this quarter.

With the help of the wave of 6.18 promotion, not only Apple has cut prices, but domestic mobile phone manufacturers have also reduced prices to varying degrees.

The price reduction of Xiaomi mobile phones is also "visible to the naked eye". Starting from May 20, the price of Xiaomi 14 and 14Pro series has dropped by 300-400 yuan; The price of the flagship folding screen MIX Fold3 released in August last year dropped by 2,000 yuan, and you can also get a 399 yuan exquisite gift package or 12 interest-free installments.

vivo also offered various 6.18 promotion activities. The vivo X Fold3 series folding screen mobile phones released in March this year have up to 24 interest-free installments, with a maximum subsidy of 1,400 yuan for trade-in.

Up to now, there has been no significant price change for Huawei, and for the newly released Pura 70 series, Huawei's Tmall official flagship store has given a discount of 12 interest-free installments.

Can Cook only rely on price reduction?

Compared with domestic mobile phone brands, although Apple still has influence in the high-end market, Apple is still nervous and even facing a lot of pressure in the context of the rise of domestic manufacturers, especially Huawei.

According to the latest data from Canalys, in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei shipped 11.7 million units, with a market share of 17%. This is also Huawei's 13 quarters after regaining the first place in the Chinese mainland market with the Mate and nova series.

Canalys analyst Zhu Jiatao said that the production and supply shortage of the Mate60 series will gradually improve in the first quarter of 2024, which has become an important factor driving Huawei's overall growth.

Huawei is followed by OPPO, Honor, vivo and Apple. Among them, Apple fell the most among the top five manufacturers, ranking fifth with 10 million units shipped, down 25% year-on-year.

In addition, according to Apple's financial report for the second fiscal quarter of 2024, global iPhone sales fell by nearly 10%, especially in the weak Chinese market, where sales fell by 8%.

All of the above has caused the industry to worry about the "iPhone apocalypse". Some people also ridiculed that Huawei stood up, but Apple couldn't eat enough.

After all, price reductions are only temporary, and in the long run, they will inevitably damage brand power and profit margins. What does Apple rely on to regain lost markets?

In this regard, Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that iPhone sales have a strong seasonality. Starting with the iPhone 15 series, sales peaked in Q4 (Q4), then gradually decreased, and finally returned to the lowest point before the new product release in the fall.

"From Apple's recent actions, it can be seen that Apple will increase its efforts in AI, including continuous updates and iterations in hardware and software." Ivan Lam told Phoenix Weekly Finance.

Since May, Cook has never stopped "drawing a big pie" in the field of AI.

"We continue to be optimistic about the revenue brought by AIGC and share exciting developments soon, and we believe that the advantages of AIGC will make Apple stand out." On May 3, Beijing time, after Apple released its quarterly report, Cook said this on a conference call.

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Then on May 7, at a small press conference held by Apple, the new iPad came out, and the most important update was that it was equipped with the latest M4 chip, which was considered by Apple to be the best embodiment of AI attributes.

During the press conference, Apple demonstrated the "AI attributes" of the new iPad products through image creation and film production.

It is reported that Apple is in full swing preparing for the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. At the conference, Apple will release the latest versions of the iOS, macOS, and VisionOS operating systems, while demonstrating how generative AI can be integrated into various products. And the iPhone 16, which was released in the second half of this year, is also trying to get rid of the impression of squeezing toothpaste for users.

According to existing leaks, the standard version of the iPhone 16 series may be the most improved generation of iPhones in all generations. On the IOS 18 system, it is expected to be equipped with a number of Apple's self-developed AI functions for the first time, and support the local deployment of AI large models.

But judging from the effect of "flatbread", it is better to directly reduce the price of the current products.

Compared with the hard to find a machine in the past, and people queued up in the early morning on the day of the first sale, the iPhone now has many fewer reasons for consumers to pay.

"It's a big price cut, but the iPhone is just back to what it should be." Someone bluntly said.

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