TMTPost -- Apple Inc. Is taking a rare step to offer deep discounts for its flagship iPhone series in China, highlighting the U.S. tech giant is struggling to revive sales amid intense competition from Chinese rivals.

Credit：Apple CEO Tim Cook Weibo

Apple’s official store at Alibaba Group’s Tmall platform launched a limited-time discounting campaign from Monday. Any iPhone 15 shopper who placed their orders from May 20 to 28 can enjoy discounts up to RMB2,050 (US$318). Specifically, iPhone 15 Pro Max starts RMB7,949, representing a reduction of RMB2,050, or 20.5% from the previous price. The starting price of iPhone 15 Pro is cut to RMB4,500 after the discount of RMB1,900, and those prices of iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus respectively down to RMB5,599 and RMB6,099, each down by RMB1,400.

At the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo operated by a major Chinese third party retailer PDD, the 128 GB iPhone 15 was sold at RMB4,498, iPhone 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max can be purchased for RMB5,358, RMB5,798 and RMB7,548, respectively, even cheaper than those at Tmall as latest iPhone series also under coverage of Pinduoduo’s 10-billioin-subsidy campaign.

The recent promotion of iPhone is much more substantial than months ago. Apple’s website lowered prices of  iPhone 15 series in January in China ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday in February. The adjustment of RMB500 pushed the starting price of iPhone 15 below RMB5,000. Resellers of Apple at Tmall and JD.com was reported late February to cut the price of iPhone 15 by as much as RMB1,300 (US$180).

The latest discounting came as Apple is striving for sales recovery of iPhone in China. Apple last month reported iPhone generated $45.96 billion that quarter with a 10.5% year-over-year (YoY) decline, reversing its YoY growth for third consecutive quarter. As a main force that dragged down Apple’s revenue, iPhone sales did show weak demand for iPhone 15 series launched last September, though not as sluggish as analysts’ forecast.

Another surprising highlight of Apple’s results came from China, which has been a source of concern for investors wary of slowdown. Greater China, which includes mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, brought $16.37 billion in the March quarter, representing an 8% YoY fall. That, however, still topped estimates of $15.87 billion with a YoY decrease of 11%.

 Apple didn’t provide detailed financial or sales figures in China, but Apple CFO Maestri said in an interview with Yahoo Finance that the company saw growth in mainland China during the quarter. In his interview with CNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook said it may come as a surprise to some people, but iPhone sales grew in China that quarter.Cook didn’t provide details of iPhone sales, while he said he remained very optimistic about the Chinese market despite fierce competition at an earnings call. "I feel good about China, I think more about long term than to the next week or so," Cook said. He noted the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the leading smartphones in urban China.

iPhone sales in China sank 19% YoY in the first quarter of 2024, recording the device’s worst performance since Covid-19 struck around 2020, even though overall smartphone sales in the country grew 1.5% YoY, marking the second consecutive quarter of positive growth, Counterpoint Research, a global technology market research firm,  estimated last month. Data from the firm showed Huawei stood out as the best performer among all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) , surging 69.7% YoY in sales.

Huawei’s growth was largely attributed to the successful launch of the 5G-capable Mate 60 series as well as its enduring brand reputation, helping it to gain a massive share in the $600+ premium segment, Counterpoint noted. Honor, the brand spun off by Huawei in November 2022, managed to deliver a 11.5% YoY increase in sales in the March quarter, and Xiaomi, another outperformer, saw sales that quarter rose 8.6% YoY. Sales of vivo edged 0.4% lower YoY, though gained the top spot with a market share of 17.4%, followed by Honor and Apple with a 16.1% share and a 15.7% share respectively. Huawei took the fourth position with a share of 15.5%, next to Apple.

However, monthly data from China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) suggested Apple shipped 3.75 million smartphones in China in March with a 12% YoY increase, marking a significant improvement of iPhone sales compared with the previous months.Apple has recorded decrease in iPhone sales for a second straight month in China. iPhone shipments in China dived nearly 39% and about 33% YoY in January and February, respectively, and the first two months of this year saw a 37% plunge, CAICT data suggested.