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China Iphone Apple

Apple Slashes iPhone Prices In China Amid Fierce Huawei Competition (reuters.com) 82

Apple is offering discounts of up to $318 on select iPhone models in China, hoping to "defend its position in the high-end smartphone market, where it faces increasing competition from local rivals such as Huawei," reports Reuters. From the report: The increased competitive pressure on Apple comes after Huawei last month introduced its new series of high-end smartphones, the Pura 70, following the launch of the Mate 60 last August. Apple's previous discounting effort in February appears to have helped the company mitigate a sales slowdown in China. Apple's shipments in China increased by 12% in March, according to Reuters' calculations based on data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). This marks a significant improvement from the first two months of 2024, when the company experienced a 37% slump in sales.
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Apple Slashes iPhone Prices In China Amid Fierce Huawei Competition

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  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday May 20, 2024 @06:33PM (#64486527)
    are in trouble. We're gearing up for a cold war in China and I can't see their government allowing either company to operate there. Tesla's especially screwed because something like 1/3 of their sales are in China and they're in a much weaker position than Apple is in their market segment.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by nicubunu ( 242346 )

      I would say Apple's especially screwed since the Chinese products competing with them are better for a majority of use cases.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Also, the Chinese government banned iPhones for any government use due to security fears, i.e. they suspect that the US can hack them.

        It is probably just tit-for-tat with the US government making the same claims about Huawei.

        When Chinese consumers heard it they also moved away from Apple products.

      • Even more so given that the USG sanctioned Huawei over five years ago in an attempt to destroy their ability to compete. And now after five years of sanctions they've not only not been destroyed but are poised to overtake Apple [cnn.com] in smartphone sales.

        So tech sanctions on China are working about as well as the War on Drugs is for drugs. And both will be continued indefinitely until they start working.

        • Even more so given that the USG sanctioned Huawei over five years ago in an attempt to destroy their ability to compete. And now after five years of sanctions they've not only not been destroyed but are poised to overtake Apple [cnn.com] in smartphone sales.

          So tech sanctions on China are working about as well as the War on Drugs is for drugs. And both will be continued indefinitely until they start working.

          Huawei sales are largely to the Chinese market, and those sales as well as those of iPhones are set at least indirectly by the Chinese government. Apple's iPhone sales in China are dictated by the whims of the Chinese government and not by US government decision. If the Chinese government wished, Apple's sales could literally disappear overnight.

          The surprising thing is not that iPhone sales are dropping but rather why it's taken so long for China to squeeze Apple and Tesla.

          Meanwhile, Huawei sales outside

      • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

        They are not better.
        How would they?
        They are phones with multi finger touch screens.
        The apps you run on them are all the same.
        Except for mail, browser, calendar and contacts.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      are in trouble. We're gearing up for a cold war in China and I can't see their government allowing either company to operate there. Tesla's especially screwed because something like 1/3 of their sales are in China and they're in a much weaker position than Apple is in their market segment.

      Apple and Tesla are screwed, not because of China but because people aren't buying into cults any more, more specifically, cults of personality. Steve Jobs is long dead, everyone is now seeing the Iphone for what it was, bland and average. Musk has revealed himself to be a complete lunatic and fraud (like Jobs, stole credit from the work of other people) and Tesla isn't competing for cheap Chinese EVs, they're priced the same as a high end 3 series BMW... just not equipped like one. Now everyone from BMW to

  • CCP? Good luck! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 ) on Monday May 20, 2024 @07:40PM (#64486677)
    You know how it works over there. Social credit scores and what not. You have to know the CCP knows what phone you have and use. You think the sheeple (other than those connected to the CCP) are going to use anything but a Chinese brand?
    • by Anonymous Coward
      When the Chinese brand is cheaper and better? Of course they will.
      Only Americans care about properly coloured text messages. In China everyone uses WeChat. And the iPhone version just isn't as good as the Android version. Because the vast majority of users have Android. So they get the newer features and updates first. Simple as.
      • Around here in Europe almost everyone uses WhatsApp and Chinese phones are very popular.

      • by _merlin ( 160982 )

        And the iPhone version just isn't as good as the Android version. Because the vast majority of users have Android. So they get the newer features and updates first. Simple as.

        The Android version is available as an APK file from their web site, and they don't have to deal with Apple's "review" process for publishing updates as they do for the iPhone version. That's probably a more significant reason for the Android version getting features first.

    • Isn't this just one country using its protective laws to build out its own industries with more modern technology? How that plays out is to be determined.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      You know how it works over there. Social credit scores and what not. You have to know the CCP knows what phone you have and use. You think the sheeple (other than those connected to the CCP) are going to use anything but a Chinese brand?

      Chinese people love non Chinese brands. Hell, there are thousands of "Daigou" (buying on behalf of) who are professional shoppers who buy products from overseas on behalf of Chinese residents.

      The Chinese know Chinese products are crap, they'd much rather have a BMW than a Roewe, it's just that most cant afford it. Chinese social media is full of pictures of attractive Chinese "influencers" with western products trying to project a life of opulence. The authorities largely don't give a shit as long as peo

  • by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Monday May 20, 2024 @10:47PM (#64486903) Homepage

    So Apple is having to compete for sales, and is lowering prices to get them? Interesting! Now, how can we get some of that competition in the US!

    • Theyâ(TM)re charging what the market will bear. Given that they have half the market in the US, although a lot less elsewhere, theyâ(TM)ve probably got the things right for now.

    • So Apple is having to compete for sales, and is lowering prices to get them? Interesting! Now, how can we get some of that competition in the US!

      Competition is for capitalism. We don't have capitalism anymore. We have an oligarchy.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      So Apple is having to compete for sales, and is lowering prices to get them? Interesting! Now, how can we get some of that competition in the US!

      Erm.. stop buying Apple products.

      Do that and they'll drop their prices. The competition is there, there's just too many gullible fools who'll overpay for average kit.

  • Americans with your Huawei ban wouldn't understand the benefits the free market gives the capitalist Chinese. Luckily I don't need a $318 discount on iPhones, on account of preferring Android. Though I would like a new, $11,000 electric car; unfortunately I live in a country that hates the free market.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    They were becoming #1 in smartphone sales, was designing their own chips, and already had #1 status in China, and was doing well selling in Europe and was going to be selling in US, and had a contract with e.g. Verizon. Then US saw that happening and tried to destroy the company through sanctions and trying to convince everyone in Europe to sanction Huawei as well. They are just taking back their market share that US tried to steal.

  • As has often been the case in the last 10-20 years, The West Wing was prescient:

    Season 7, episode 11, "Internal Displacement"

    CHINESE AMBASSADOR: Capitalism vanquished communism, obliterated it. And here we are having a discussion where you are trying to restrict our markets.

    C.J. [White House Chief of Staff]: We're trying to address a humanitarian situation in the Sudan.

    CHINESE AMBASSADOR: Exactly. But you have always taught us that liberty is the same thing as capitalism, as if life, liberty and

  • If the phones sold in China are the same as elsewhere in the world, it would seem that there's a ripe market opportunity now for someone in China to buy phones at RRP and sell them on eBay to other people new, for less than the RRP, and still make a profit.

    Grey market imports (using mechanisms like this) used to feature heavity in (digital) camera equipment on some of the big name websites. Seems like a ripe opportunity for more of the same, unless Apple has bribed US customers to block such imports.

  • Which market do you prefer? A market where everyone is allowed to compete or over here where some phones are banned so that Apple could monopolize?

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