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Apple slashes prices of iPhone 15 models to new low in China amid heated competition in world’s largest smartphone market

  • Mainland online retailers JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall on Monday started offering deeper discounts on iPhone 15 models
  • The aggressive price cuts on the two major online platforms show the lengths being taken by Apple to boost domestic demand for its flagship product

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In the March quarter, the iPhone’s share of the mainland smartphone market shrank to 15.7 per cent, down from 20.2 per cent a year earlier, amid stiff domestic competition. Photo: Shutterstock
Apple is offering a new range of steep discounts for iPhone 15 models to consumers in mainland China, with online retail platforms bringing prices to a new low amid the US tech giant’s efforts to boost sluggish sales in the world’s biggest smartphone market.
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The top-of-the-line 256-gigabyte iPhone 15 Pro Max model, for example, on Monday started selling for 7,949 yuan (US$1,100) on Apple’s official online stores on JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall platform – down 2,050 yuan, or 20 per cent off, from its 9,999-yuan price tag when the new series was released last September. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The basic 128GB iPhone 15 model, meanwhile, now costs 23 per cent less at 4,599 yuan, down from its previous price of 5,999 yuan, on both JD.com and Tmall. The sale runs from May 20 to 28, according to the two platforms.

Apple’s mainland online Apple Store, however, kept the recent prices of iPhone 15 models unchanged. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

A large iPhone 15 Pro advertisement is displayed on a large screen at the Apple Store in Wangfujing Street in Beijing. Photo: Shutterstock
A large iPhone 15 Pro advertisement is displayed on a large screen at the Apple Store in Wangfujing Street in Beijing. Photo: Shutterstock
The aggressive discounts on the two major online platforms show the lengths being taken by Apple to reinvigorate domestic demand for its flagship product, more than a month after iPhone sales in the firm’s Greater China region – comprising the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwandeclined 8 per cent to US$16.4 billion in the March quarter.
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