30% off in 30 days! The price of the new iPad Pro has plummeted

Ray Technology

2024-06-18 19:41Published in Guangdong science and technology creators

Last month, Apple just released the latest iPad Pro 2024. In order to send the evaluation guide to the fans who pay attention to Lei Technology in a timely manner, Xiaolei spent a huge amount of 16599 yuan on the day of sale and bought a 13-inch 1T version of the iPad Pro M4.

After the evaluation, Xiaolei originally wanted to turn 99 into a new iPad Pro. Unexpectedly, this new machine, which has been on sale for less than a month, has dropped prices faster than imagined. Xiaolei listed a price of 12000 yuan on a second-hand platform, and no one cared about it for several days, and even had a friend knife 500 yuan, he bluntly said that there were few users who bought the 1T version for self-use, and 11500 yuan was already a very sincere price.

Source: Xianyu

The second-hand platform can't get out, Xiaolei found the recycling platform again, but the estimated price of the platform is lower than that of the user, and it came directly to 11147 yuan, which also has the first exclusive coupon to add 18% credit. If calculated at 11,500 yuan, the depreciation rate of this 13-inch 1T iPad Pro M4 is as high as 30%, and the price drop rate is comparable to that of a rocket.

Source: Zhuan Zhuan

Once upon a time, Apple products such as the iPhone and Apple Watch were still the favorites of scalpers: the supply was small, the user base was large, and there was a lot of room for speculation.

Have you ever wondered why Apple products don't retain their value?

The essence of value preservation is the relationship between supply and demand

On the surface, the official price reduction is the direct reason for the successive plunge in the prices of Apple's core products. 618 this year, there is really not a lot of news about Apple. Only 1 hour after Tmall went on sale, Apple's turnover exceeded 1.5 billion. Not only a single platform, but also the top three mobile phone sales on almost all e-commerce platforms. Up to now, the top three of JD Mobile's 618 mobile phone cumulative list are still firmly occupied by iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15.

Is Apple's 618 sales good? It's really good, but it's in exchange for a price cut. Taking the iPhone 15 128GB version as an example, the price on Tmall is 4599 yuan, which is 1400 yuan lower than the price on Apple's official website; Jingdong iPhone 15 128GB version is 4749 yuan, PLUS members are discounted, and you can save another 40 yuan when you get it; It's the turn of Pinduoduo, which is gaining momentum, and the iPhone 15 128GB version is priced at 4398 yuan.

Source: Pinduoduo

The price of iPhone 15 series models is 1000-2000 yuan lower than the official starting price on average, and it is no wonder that consumers are crazy. But maintaining this situation for a long time is clearly not what Apple wants to see.

The iPhone has always been Apple's growth engine, and Apple delivered a good report card last year: the global shipment of iPhone surpassed Samsung for the first time and won the sales crown; The annual net profit exceeded 100 billion US dollars, making a lot of money.

However, there are still some small flaws that can be seen on this almost perfect score answer sheet. In Q4 2023, Apple's revenue in Greater China fell by 12.9% year-on-year, and with the continuous efforts of domestic manufacturers, Apple's decline in the domestic market will continue in 2024.

One of the keys to judging the competitiveness of flagship mobile phones is the stability of prices, and the price reduction of core products reflects that Apple's competitiveness is becoming smaller. In the final analysis, the relationship between supply and demand determines the value retention rate, and when people are no longer chasing, it is a matter of course that Apple products do not maintain their value.

Squeezing toothpaste updates doesn't keep users

In the field of consumer electronics, there has always been a saying - "buy new not buy old". For smartphones, computers and other products, each generation of updates will basically bring some new changes, at least in terms of performance, to attract users to buy new products.

With the maturity of various consumer electronic products, the update cycle of electronic products is becoming faster and faster. Consumers tend to buy the latest models when faced with a wide range of new products on the market, ignoring the "old" products, where the "old" is not only the product year, but also the technology.

This phenomenon is especially obvious in the smartphone market, where the competition between Apple and Android has always been a risk target for the smartphone industry. Five years ago, Android phones followed Apple's upgrade; Five years later, everything is reversed, and many new technologies, new designs, and new features are Android flagships first, and Apple is following suit.

Source: Produced by Lei Technology

For example, when the AI large model has been played on the Android flagship mobile phone, and even the mid-range machine and the thousand-yuan machine are also equipped with the large model. Apple AI is still warming up, and it wasn't until WWDC24 that Apple Intelligence was released, and AI features need to be unlocked in batches, some of which may not be officially available until next year.

If in the era of strong demand for smartphones, the impact of Apple's lagging update may not be so great. However, according to TechInsights, a foreign analytical agency, the replacement rate of smartphones around the world has been declining in the past decade. In 2023, the consumer replacement cycle will be further extended, reaching the longest in history of 51 months, which is equivalent to the average person only changing their mobile phones once in more than 4 years.

The domestic market is relatively better, but the average consumer replacement cycle is also more than 40 months, and many people will only change their mobile phones once in at least three and a half years.

In the environment of low desire to change phones, on the one hand, the Android camp is crazy involution, making a fuss in terms of material, technology, design, function, etc.; On the other side is the Buddhist apple, which maintains a steady micro-innovation. I believe that it is precisely for this reason that many Apple users choose to "abandon the fruit and invest in Zhuo".

Users are gradually seeing the brand premium

For a long time, Apple products have been favored by consumers due to their advantages in design, ecology, performance, and user experience. However, its high price has also discouraged many consumers. If Apple's pace of innovation can keep up with the inflated pricing strategy, it may not be so controversial, but as we all know, the degree of iPhone toothpaste squeezing has risen to a new stage in the past two years.

Take the iPhone 15 as an example, except for the processor upgrade from A15 to A16, the other configurations are almost exactly the same as the iPhone 14 in 2022, not to mention that the A16 processor is actually released in 2022.

From the current perspective, Apple launched a phone in the second half of 2023 that actually belongs to 2022. At the same time, domestic mobile phones have surpassed Apple's A16 processor in performance. In addition, in terms of screen, charging speed, battery capacity and signal reception and other peripheral configurations, domestic mobile phones have also comprehensively surpassed the iPhone 15.

Even so, the price of the iPhone remains high, which is much higher than that of domestic phones in the same class. Many mid-range models in the Android camp have already started with 12+256GB, even if it is 16+1TB The top price will not be too exaggerated, and for those users who really need large memory, they only need to add five or six hundred yuan.

Source: Station B @ Lin Yi LYi

On the other hand, Apple's side, the starting price of iPhone 15 was originally five or six thousand, but it only gave users 6+128GB memory combination, and if you want to upgrade to 256GB, you have to add a thousand yuan, it can be said that Apple's product "golden memory" is really not an exaggeration. For Apple users, the iPhone at this stage seems to have only two advantages: a stable iOS and a bundled Apple ecosystem.

However, Apple's pricing strategy is nowhere near as solid as it could be. On January 15, Apple's official website released promotional information, and the preferential policy covers almost all Apple products. In fact, this is not the first time that Apple has initiated price reductions on its official website, and similar policies have been implemented in the past two years, but it is not frequent, and it happens more on third-party platforms such as JD.com and Tmall.

What happened later, everyone also knows that the price reduction of Apple's core products has come one after another. In Xiaolei's view, similar situations will happen from time to time in the future, and the frequency will become higher and higher, before Apple products such as iPhone regain the absolute advantage of product power, Apple must rely on promotional means to stabilize the position of iPhone in the smartphone market.

Fruit fans who are not in a hurry to change their mobile phones may be able to wait more, and maybe when they will be able to enjoy a similar price reduction discount as 618.

The halo of value preservation is no longer there, is there still hard currency for electronic products?

When it comes to value preservation, Moutai is inevitably a term that cannot be bypassed, and people are always accustomed to installing titles such as "electronic Moutai" and "cyber Moutai" for products with high value retention. I don't know if you have noticed, in the past few years, the price of Moutai has gradually dropped, and the price of Feitian Moutai has come to about 2200 yuan during the 618 period, and the originator of value preservation has begun to cool down.

Throughout the development of electronic products, we can find that there are so-called "electronic Moutai" in every period, iPhone, Huawei Mate X5, Fujifilm camera, ...... These familiar names eventually lost their reputation as they retained their value with the development of technology.

Source: Produced by Lei Technology

On the whole, the value preservation of electronic products is not generalized, but is affected by a variety of factors, including brand, market demand, technology update speed, etc.

For example, in the African market, some low-end electronic products are deeply loved by users because of their accurate market positioning and low prices. Conversely, these products are sold at best as toys or feature phones at low prices in the Chinese market, suggesting that the retention rate of electronic products will change with regional and market demand.

On the other hand, there is also the potential for electronics to become electronic hard currency at certain times (where prices are rising rapidly due to supply chain issues and surges in demand). For example, the graphics card during the mine tide, the game console during the risk control period, and so on. Some specific products may become new electronic hard currency at certain times and in certain regions.

However, on the whole, the rapid upgrading and technological iteration of electronic products will have a negative impact on the value retention rate of all electronic products. Unless we step on certain conditions, the electronic products in our hands will not escape the fate of depreciation in the end, and there is no eternal electronic hard currency.

From May 20th to June 30th, 2024, the 618 mid-year promotion is coming, and the six major e-commerce platforms of Taobao Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu will collectively "listen to persuasion", cancel pre-sales, and bargain wildly!

Popular AI hard technology categories such as mobile phone digital, AI PC, smart home appliances, TVs, small household appliances, and air ice washing are gearing up and the battle is fierce.

Lei Technology 618 report team will pay attention to the latest situation of the e-commerce platform, the latest developments of AI hard technology brands, and the new trend of the e-commerce industry.

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