{"id":1511350,"date":"2025-01-02T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T21:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1511350"},"modified":"2025-01-02T16:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T21:40:00","slug":"apple-offers-rare-iphone-discounts-in-china-amid-intensifying-huawei-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/apple-offers-rare-iphone-discounts-in-china-amid-intensifying-huawei-competition\/1511350\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Offers Rare iPhone Discounts In China Amid Intensifying Huawei Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Apple Offers Rare iPhone Discounts In China Amid Intensifying Huawei Competition<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Apple struggled with selling iPhones in China in 2024 as rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi took away market share from the world&#8217;s most valuable company. As a result, Tim Cook has been pressured to offer &#8220;<strong>rare discounts<\/strong>&#8221; on iPhones in the world&#8217;s largest handset market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2025-01-02_09-03-30.png?itok=UXZb2dri\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/apple-offers-iphone-discounts-china-competition-intensifies-2025-01-02\/\">Reuters<\/a> reports that discounts of up to 500 yuan ($68.50) are being offered in a four-day promotion for the flagship iPhone 16 Pro, running from Saturday through next Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><em>The four-day promotion, running from Jan. 4-7, applies to several iPhone models when purchased using specific payment methods, according to its website. The flagship iPhone 16 Pro with a starting price of 7,999 yuan and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with a starting price of 9,999 yuan will see the highest discount of 500 yuan. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will receive a 400 yuan reduction. -RTRS<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s sales in China have been\u00a0under pressure with increasing domestic competition. For a brief moment, Apple fell out of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/apples-iphone-falls-out-chinas-top-five-domestic-brands-soar-popularity\">top five smartphone vendors<\/a> in the world&#8217;s second-largest economy in the\u00a0second quarter of 2024. It did recover in the third quarter, yet sales did\u00a0decline year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2025-01-02_09-02-42.png?itok=rWWvdNsU\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Huawei&#8217;s sales surged as the Chinese tech firm introduced new &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/huawei-ditches-android-os-new-made-china-smartphone\">made-in-China<\/a>&#8216; smartphones featuring a new operating system and domestically produced chips to power the devices. Strong\u00a0patriotic fervor in the country has also led to consumers ditching iPhones for domestic ones.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s earnings in the fourth quarter\u00a0beat revenue estimates, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/apple-slides-after-missing-wearables-china-and-service-revenues-another-disappointing\">but sales in\u00a0China missed<\/a> and dropped year over year. China weakness is certainly showing up in earnings, hence why Cook has been forced to offer &#8220;rare discounts&#8221; on iPhones.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reuters added:<\/p>\n<p><em>The Apple promotion also includes discounts of 200 to 300 yuan on older iPhone models, as well as other categories of products such as MacBook laptops and iPad tablets. Customers must use designated payment methods including WeChat Pay or Alipay to qualify for the discounts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, described Apple&#8217;s <strong>China unit\u00a0as &#8220;a disappointment in &#8217;24, full stop.&#8221;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not just China. The whole\u00a0AI-powered iPhone supercycle theme was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/ai-fails-spark-upgrade-supercycle-apple\">total bust elsewhere<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cook&#8217;s troubles could multiply as Trump&#8217;s tariff war with China complicates matters for the world&#8217;s most valuable company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Goldman&#8217;s\u00a0Allen Chang and\u00a0Verena Jeng recently noted that an increasing number of Chinese handset brands are releasing AI smartphones for the mid-end market for as low as $168.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/2024-12-16_11-11-01.png?itok=nRY-mqQB\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We asked: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/how-will-apple-compete-168-ai-smartphones-chinese-brands\">&#8220;How Will Apple Compete With $168 AI Smartphones From China?&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Thu, 01\/02\/2025 &#8211; 11:40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/apple-offers-rare-iphone-discounts-china-amid-intensifying-huawei-competition\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/technology\/apple-offers-rare-iphone-discounts-china-amid-intensifying-huawei-competition<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple Offers Rare iPhone Discounts In China Amid Intensifying Huawei Competition Apple struggled with selling iPhones in China in 2024 as rivals like Huawei and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1511351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1511351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}