In China, the world’s largest smartphone market, the latest iPhone 16 was suddenly sold with discounts of up to 11% ahead of its official release. The lack of built-in AI in new Apple smartphones has cooled the demand of Chinese buyers, so China’s largest online retailers, including Pinduoduo and Taobao, are offering significant discounts on Apple’s flagship devices.
Image source: Apple
Pinduoduo, owned by PDD Holdings and one of the country’s most popular e-commerce platforms, is offering the iPhone 16 Plus with 512GB of storage for 8,999 yuan ($1,268). This is 10% lower than the official price of 9999 yuan. The iPhone 16 with 128 GB of storage is on sale with an 11% discount, which is the largest price reduction in the lineup.
Other major market players are also involved in price competition. Pinduoduo and Taobao (the latter owned by Alibaba Group Holding) are offering a 4% discount on the iPhone 16 Pro Max with 256GB of storage, reducing its price by 400 yuan to 9,599 yuan. Tmall, another Alibaba platform, offers 24-month interest-free installments. Notably, Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post, the source of this information.
Such discounts on Apple’s flagship devices indicate low demand for the latest iPhones in the Middle Kingdom, a key market for the world’s most valuable company. The iPhone 16, which goes on sale on Friday, will not yet come equipped with AI features, which are considered the main advantage of modern smartphones. The absence of this key innovation could have a significant impact on sales given the highly competitive Chinese smartphone market. The situation is aggravated by the activity of Huawei, which recently introduced the new Mate XT smartphone.