Apple's official shot! The highest price reduction is 800 yuan, and there is no miracle in the vigorous promotion
Price reduction information. Screenshot of the official website
Apple's official announcement is a price reduction promotion.
On January 15, Apple's official website in China launched a preview of the event, which will open the "New Year Limited Time Offer" from January 18th to 21st. The preferential policy covers almost all Apple products, and the price can be reduced by up to 800 yuan. Among them, all models of the iPhone 15 series, iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus or iPhone 13 can be reduced by up to 500 yuan.
Entering the New Year, Apple products have already started to reduce prices.
"iPhone 15 price starts at 4820 yuan, iPhone 15 Plus price starts at 5710 yuan, iPhone 15 Pro price starts at 6830 yuan, iPhone 15 Pro Max price starts at 8560 yuan". On January 8, a Shell financial reporter found in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, that the price of Apple's new machine was reduced by more than 1,000 yuan compared with the official website.
Apple cut prices across multiple channels
A wholesaler in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, told the Shell financial reporter, "The price of Apple mobile phones has dropped a lot. This is the market recently. Another wholesaler also said that the price of Apple phones has dropped sharply, but "no one can say" in terms of sales.
Not only in the Huaqiangbei market, the reporter noticed that the price of Apple's mobile phone after the superposition of tens of billions of subsidies on the Pinduoduo platform is also discounted by more than 1,000 yuan. In order to boost sales, Apple has also officially begun to reduce prices. Apple's self-operated flagship store on the Jingdong platform shows that the price of the iPhone 15 series products ranges from 600 to 800 yuan.
Around New Year's Day 2024, Apple's stock price continued to fall sharply, and its market value evaporated by more than one trillion yuan (RMB). Barclays lowered its price target on Apple for the next 12 months to $160 from $161.
Since its release, the iPhone 15 has lacked the usual popularity in China. According to data from Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 15 series did not sell as well as last year's iPhone 14 in the 17 days after its launch in China. At the same time, the launch of new phones such as the Huawei Mate 60 has set off a rush to buy, resulting in continued shortages.
Compared to 2022, Apple's market share in high-end phones will drop from 75% to 71% in 2023. Counterpoint Research noted that this is mainly due to Huawei's recovery in the Chinese market, driven by the Mate 60 series. Samsung has also gained market share with its S23 and folding series. Foldable phones have also become a differentiator in the high-end market.
"Apple is under a lot of pressure right now. Ma Jihua, a senior analyst in the communications industry, told reporters, "From Apple's own point of view, the product innovation over the years has become more and more insufficient, and it has not kept up with the pace of the entire industry in the research and development of new smart terminals, such as automobiles and smart homes are now its shortcomings, so Apple is facing great market pressure." ”
Price cuts failed to stimulate sales, and the high-end image was challenged
The prospect of Apple's price cuts also seems to be encouraging.
The report by Jefferies analysts noted that while Apple has slammed discounts on several iPhone models in China's main online marketplace, it has failed to spur sales growth.
"The iPhone 15 got off to an unusually sluggish start in China last year, with the recent year-on-year decline extending to 30%. At the same time, sales of other mobile phone brands in China have grown, with Huawei growing the fastest with its new Mate 60 product line. Jefferies estimates that Huawei will ship 35 million smartphones in 2023. iPhone sales in China are expected to decline by double digits this year.
Behind Apple's sharp decline in market value and price cuts, the decline in its revenue cannot be ignored. Its financial report for the third quarter of 2023 shows that Apple's revenue in the quarter was $89.498 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.72%; The iPhone business accounts for nearly half of its revenue, which can be said to be the foundation that supports its revenue.
In terms of business, except for iPhones, the hardware business declined in other aspects: Mac business net sales of US$7.614 billion, down 34% year-on-year, iPad business net sales of US$6.443 billion, down 10% year-on-year, and wearable, home and accessories business net sales of US$9.322 billion, down 3% year-on-year. By region, in the third quarter of last year, net sales in Greater China were $15.084 billion, down 2.5% year-on-year.
"Apple is the darling of the mobile Internet era, it is a super brand that rises with the rise of the mobile Internet, as the whole society moves from the mobile Internet era to the intelligent era and the era of the Internet of Everything, Apple's innovation and leading pace is not as good as before, and the brilliant Apple is now indeed going downhill. Ma Jihua said.
"Apple's 'high-end' image is being challenged like never before. Ma Bo, an analyst in the global communications industry, told reporters that from the perspective of the global market, Apple's long-term insistence on high prices is supported by its unique performance and ecology, and now Android mobile phones are frequently updated and optimized, and the performance advantages of iPhone have been gradually erased, and the former has a tendency to surpass in compatibility, interaction and experience. "There is no qualitative improvement in the performance of Apple's mobile phones, and it has lost the foundation of high prices. Domestic consumers can no longer find a reason to pay a premium for Apple. Ma Bo said.
The iPhone 16 was accused of having no new ideas, and Apple bet on new growth points
Recently, renders of the iPhone 16 Pro series of mobile phones were exposed on social networking platforms.
Relevant information shows that the new machine has expanded the screen size, added a photo button, and other aspects mainly improve the processor performance and shooting capabilities. Although the actual product situation of the final product still needs to wait for the official release to be confirmed.
After this rendering was exposed on the Internet, many netizens said, "There is no novelty at all", "I don't feel like much has changed", "Now the value of buying a new machine is getting lower and lower"......
The industry generally believes that if it is a toothpaste-type innovation, Apple's mobile phone will be complained by more users.
Apple is also trying to bet on new growth points. On February 2, Apple will launch the Apple Vision Pro, the first wearable mixed reality headset that has been invested in the U.S. market for a long time, with a starting price of $3,499.
This is a product that Cook takes very seriously. Cook has said that the device marks the beginning of a new era of computing technology, "Just as the Mac brought us into the era of personal computing, the iPhone brought us into the era of mobile computing, and the Apple Vision Pro brought us into the era of spatial computing." ”
"Cook has taken the helm of Apple with a strong focus on wearables, and now headsets are an area he's betting on. In virtual reality, Apple has a certain amount of technology accumulation and development determination. However, Ma Jihua also reminded that this road is not easy to walk, because the development of headsets and virtual reality not only depends on terminal equipment, its requirements for the network are also very high, in addition to the conditions for application development, "Whether these aspects can keep up is currently unknown, whether Apple's headset can achieve the capabilities it advertises after it is listed, whether it can make the user's experience keep up, is also unknown." ”
Bai Shenghao, a senior analyst at market research agency Counterpoint Research, said that the $3,499 pricing shows that Apple Vision Pro is not aimed at ordinary consumers, but at professional users and content developers. The product's eye-tracking and gesture-tracking systems make human-computer interaction more natural, moving away from the way the handle operates, and can lead to the development of future XR products. "While the Vision Pro is unlikely to have a disruptive impact on the consumer market in terms of sales in the near term, it certainly sets a new industry benchmark and injects strong momentum into the XR industry. ”
Zhao Siquan, a senior analyst at IDC China, told reporters that the release of Vision Pro will, to a certain extent, guide the changing trend of new MR products of domestic manufacturers, reduce the production cost of the industrial chain, and attract a larger number of content developers.
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