On the evening of May 31st, JD.com announced an increase in discounts on Apple products for the upcoming 618 shopping festival. The Apple products at JD.com’s flagship store, including the iPhone 15 Pro Max, are seeing discounts of up to 2350 yuan (RMB), while the iPhone 15 Pro is being reduced by a minimum of 2000 yuan. This flagship store is an authorized Apple distributor, and the official prices for the iPhone 15 series have hit historic lows.
According to the JD.com flagship store, from June 1st to 3rd, after the discounts, the iPhone 15 Pro will be priced at 5949 yuan, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max will start at 7749 yuan.
Currently, JD.com’s proprietary store is offering slightly larger discounts compared to the Tmall Apple store flagship store.
The Tmall Apple Store official flagship store shows that the starting price for the iPhone 15 Pro is 6099 yuan, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at 7949 yuan. Compared to the original selling prices, the discounts have exceeded 25%.
On the evening of May 20th, Tmall’s 618 promotional activities began, and the Tmall Apple Store official flagship store initiated significant price reductions. From May 20th to 28th, the iPhone 15 series had major promotions, with discounts of up to 2300 yuan between the official flagship store and Tmall subsidies.
Data from Tmall shows that within the first hour of sales during the 618 festival, Apple sold over 1.5 billion yuan worth of products.
Recently, the price reductions on Apple’s iPhone 15 series have garnered attention. iPhone sales have faced a steep decline in the Chinese market. In March of this year, Apple competed for customers on JD.com, Tmall, and Pinduoduo by offering substantial discounts on their latest model, the iPhone 15. In January, Apple also provided rare discounts for the iPhone 15 in China, reducing the retail price by 500 RMB.
The Chinese Communist government’s crackdown and competition from Huawei smartphones are seen as the main reasons for the iPhone’s struggle in China. In September of last year, US media cited sources saying that the Chinese Communist Party had expanded the ban on the use of iPhones to government-supported institutions and state-owned enterprises, with some Chinese institutions instructing their employees not to bring iPhones to work. In December of the same year, sources disclosed to overseas media that over the past month or two, including in at least eight provinces, many government departments and Chinese state-owned enterprises started instructing employees to use domestic smartphone brands.
As early as October of last year, prices for the entire iPhone 15 series on e-commerce platforms experienced a decline. For example, the iPhone 15 Plus, at the official flagship store for China Mobile phones, saw a direct price reduction of 600 yuan when combining subsidies and coupons; the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with an official Apple price of 9999 yuan, was priced at 9098 yuan after receiving billions in subsidies on the Taobao platform.
Aside from being restricted for use by Chinese government employees, competitors like Huawei introduced a domestic smartphone last year, receiving intense media promotion and covert support from the Chinese Communist Party, leading to a significant increase in Huawei’s sales within China.