Apple is still selling off its iPhone 15s in China, for fear of Huawei’s return to the forefront

The giant Apple has launched a new price reduction campaign for its iPhones in China. The Apple firm is wary of Huawei, which has regained color in recent months.

Shaken by its competitors Vivo, Honor and again Huawei, Apple has decided to go on the attack again in China. The American brand has just launched a new bold promotional campaign, lowering the prices of its iPhones by several hundred euros (the local currency is the yuan). Apple had already launched a similar campaign at the beginning of the year.

Apple severely shaken by Chinese brands on their lands

In China, Apple is feeling the wind blowing, and in both directions. The iPhone’s market share fell to 15.7% in March 2024 (compared to 20.2% a year earlier), overtaken by locals Vivo (17.4%) and Honor (16.1% ).

The most annoying thing for Apple is the very good recent performance of Huawei, which thanks to the success of the Mate 60 Pro and its Kirin 9000S chip engraved in 7 nanometers, has managed to climb to 15.5% market share. Some firms, like Counterpoint, even saw the Shenzhen firm overtake Apple in market share over the period.

Apple therefore wants to recover its status in the Middle Kingdom and believes it can achieve this thanks to a new campaign to reduce the prices of its mobile phones, particularly the iPhone 15 range. And the least we can say is that the manufacturer doesn’t do things by halves.

Unbeatable prices for the iPhone 15 range in China

Last February, the biggest promotion on the iPhone 15 Pro Max with a storage capacity of 1 TB reached 1,150 yuan, or around 150 euros. An already honorable drop. This time, the American brand goes up to 2,300 yuan, or almost 300 euros reduction!

On Alibaba, in China, for example, we find the 256 GB iPhone 15 Pro Max at less than 2,050 yuan (260 euros), or around 1,010 euros in final price. In France, this same model today costs 1,479 euros, manufacturer price. Still in China, the entry model, the 128 GB iPhone 15 benefits from a 23% discount, reaching 4,599 yuan (585 euros), compared to 5,999 yuan (763 euros) previously. This smartphone costs 969 euros in France.

We can speak of a real aggressive strategy from Apple, which is even more wary of Huawei and its new high-end smartphone, the Pura 70, ever more independent of heavy American sanctions. If Apple saw its sales increase by 12% in China in March, the Cupertino company seems to want more.

Source : Reuters