SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese retailers are offering discounts of up to 10% on Apple Inc’s iPhone 14 Pro amid sluggish smartphone demand. JD.Com and Suning are currently selling the base model iPhone 14 Pro for 7,199 yuan ($1,062), checks on the JD.com app and Suning’s website showed. The amount is 800 yuan cheaper than the standard price on Apple’s official website in China.
Several other Apple authorized retailers are offering similar discounts on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, Reuters checks of social media deals showed. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company occasionally lets partner vendors in China offer discounts on their phones to stimulate demand.
“The return of price cuts, even for the best-selling iPhone 14 models, is not a good sign for demand,” Edison Lee, an analyst at Jefferies, wrote in a note to clients, adding that several brands with the Android operating system also reduced prices. China’s smartphone sales in 2022 reached 286 million, the lowest level in a decade, with fourth-quarter sales falling 14% due to low demand, according to research firm Canalys. Apple’s sales fell 24% for the quarter, Canalys said, partly due to the early launch of the iPhone 14 series and partly due to supply chain problems caused by worker unrest at third-party maker Foxconn. The China Securities Journal first reported price discounts on Sunday.
(By Josh Horwitz)
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