Apple Discounts Several Devices In China, Not India

With a population of 1.3 billion people, China is the biggest smartphone market. A little change in this market could bring a significant result to any smartphone manufacturer. Recently, Apple has announced a price cut plan of several iconic products such as iPhone, AirPods, iPad as well as MacOS-based computers in China. Consumers who buy those products on its online store can take most of Apple devices with the decrease in cost are around 5 percent.

On the other hand, prices for those products in other regions have not changed. According to the latest news of CNBC, Chinese customers who purchased a new device discounted in the list during the past 14 days will be refunded a difference for the change. For instance, a new iPhone XR 64GB variant was priced at RMB 6,499 before the Monday’s change. Now its price starts at RMB 6,199 (approximately $924).

Prior to this official change, some Chinese retailers of Apple had already lower the prices of the iPhone after the company warned the sales to investors in January. Beijing’s publisher Caixin reports that what reason makes Apple’s decision to discount some products. In the meantime, China’s value-added tax rate goes down from 16 percent to 13 percent from now on. This plan is supposed to be a response to the new change of tax rate.

In fact, Apple rarely discounts its own products while third-party retailers routinely offer promotional pricing and attractive deals on Apple devices. Last year, Apple had offered hundreds of dollars in incentives to consumers for the first time. They had traded their old iPhone and upgraded to a new iPhone XR or iPhone XS.

CEO of Apple Tim Cook recently warned that the revenue of first-quarter would not meet the expectation. He also indicated the reason for the revenue shortfall, which the sales of their devices have declined in the world's largest market.