After the biggest price cut in history, iPhone sales in China increased by more than 40% month-on-month in May

Observer.com

2024-07-01 17:40Observer.com official account

A few days ago, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released an analysis report on the operation of the domestic mobile phone market in May 2024, which showed that in May 2024, the domestic market shipped 30.329 million mobile phones, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%. From the perspective of domestic and foreign brand composition, in May 2024, domestic brand mobile phone shipments were 25.301 million units, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, accounting for 83.4% of mobile phone shipments in the same period.

According to this ratio, the shipment of overseas brand mobile phones in May was 5.028 million units, compared with 3.603 million units in the same period last year, and the shipment of overseas brand mobile phones in April this year was 3.495 million units, compared with 2.301 million units in April last year.

Generally speaking, among overseas brands in the Chinese smartphone market, Apple's products occupy an absolute dominant position, that is, the growth of mobile phone shipments of overseas brands can be attributed to the growth of Apple's shipments.

This means that iPhone sales are up 44% month-on-month compared to April and 40% year-on-year.

Previously, Apple's revenue in Greater China fell by more than 8% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. In terms of the market, in the first quarter of this year, Apple's share of China's high-end market of more than US$600 (about 4,346 yuan) fell to 45.5% from 58% last year, and the combined share of Huawei and other domestic brands has exceeded 50%.

In the face of declining share, Apple responded to the competition by slashing prices.

Before the 618 promotion began, the observer network checked and found that the official flagship store of Tmall Apple shows that as Apple's main product, after superimposing the official discount and Tmall coupons, the starting price of iPhone15 and iPhone15 Plus has been reduced by 1400 yuan, the starting price of iPhone15 Pro has been reduced by 1900 yuan, and the discount of the 1TB version has reached 2300 yuan, and the starting price of iPhone15 Pro Max has been reduced by 2050 yuan, with a maximum discount of 2250 yuan, The promotion period is from May 20th to May 28th.

At that time, some analysts pointed out that this was an important node, because Apple had never made such a large official price reduction in the Chinese market.

Judging from the recent data, Apple's lower-profile price reduction has indeed had a certain effect.

In addition, according to the TechInsights Wireless Smartphone Strategy (WSS) channel, Apple will cut the price of the iPhone 15 series by 1,400-2,300 yuan (about $193-317) this year, and maintain its leading position during the 618 promotion. Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are not only the most popular models in the 6,000 yuan plus ($826 and above) segment, but also the most popular models in all JD.com segments.

However, price reduction is a "strong medicine", but it is not necessarily a "good cure". Earlier, IDC pointed out that although the price adjustment and promotion are continuous, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the best-selling model during the Spring Festival, Apple is facing increasing challenges and pressure from competing products, and urgently needs to upgrade and innovate from software and hardware to attract consumers.

Apparently Apple is aware of the problem as well. Not long ago, at Apple's WWDC24 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple launched its artificial intelligence service Apple Intelligence, which plans to introduce a series of AI features to iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

Mark Gurman, a long-time observer of Apple, believes that Apple Intelligence will become increasingly important to Apple and will gradually become the backbone of the company's business.

However, it remains to be seen how effective Apple Intelligence will be in driving Apple's sales in the future.

This article is an exclusive manuscript of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.

View original image 95K

•