Chinese e-commerce platforms have started offering deep discounts on the new iPhone 16 smartphones, up to 2,530 yuan (about US$351), to boost sales amid declining supplies of Apple products in China. About this informs Reuters.
The discounts were announced on the eve of the big annual Chinese shopping festival “618”, which traditionally takes place on June 18. With a general economic slowdown, Chinese retailers are looking to entice shoppers with attractive prices.
In particular, one of China’s largest online retailers, JD.com, is offering the 128GB iPhone 16 Pro model for 5,469 yuan (about $759), which is 2,530 yuan less than Apple’s official price of 7,999 yuan. The same price — 5,469 yuan — is set for the iPhone 16 model with 256 GB of memory, which usually costs 6,999 yuan. Currently, it is not known whether the initiator of the discounts is Apple itself, or whether this is exclusively a marketing strategy of online sites.
As IDC senior smartphone market analyst Will Wong noted, Apple has previously used similar pricing moves to drive sales during “618.”
“Apple is repeating its sales promotion strategy that was used during last year’s shopping event. The company is reducing the prices of the iPhone 16 Pro to take advantage of China’s government subsidies for digital products”, Wong explained.
Such selective discounts are part of Apple’s pricing policy in the Chinese market. For example, in January, the company offered discounts of up to 500 yuan on its official website. In addition, similar promotions were launched earlier on e-commerce platforms in China.
According to IDC, in the first quarter of 2025, Apple’s smartphone shipments in China fell by 9%, while local brands Xiaomi and Huawei showed growth of 40% and 10%, respectively.
