Apple Launches Promo in China Offering Interest-Free Financing When Purchasing New iPhone

I've never seen no many promos with new iPhones... Signs of the times...

Maybe they should just consider... not pricing them so prohibitively expensive?

They’re still too expensive.

I've never seen no many promos with new iPhones... Signs of the times...

It's not just a pricing problem Apple has in China. Few people on this forum want to acknowledge how good the Chinese offerings have gotten and how well they integrate with the services and social media China has.

There was a person on this forum last year who is living in China and they said Apple services and the cloud don't work well there. I can't verify that but we have read numerous times on this very site how Apple's policies have clashed with how Chinese consumers actually use services.

And on top of that, the latest Huawei flagships have specs and features that are a genuine threat to Apple and Samsung offerings even outside of China. What they're doing with cameras is amazing. I am no fan of Huawei, (quite the opposite) so it's with trepidation that I keep an eye on how far they've come on their own (on the backs of filched IP). My husband has tested a P30 Pro and it's last year's model with performance that even this year's phones will be hard pressed to beat. In terms of all around performance it is rock solid and the battery life is insane. Apple and Samsung really need to match or exceed what Huawei is doing. The race is on.

Apple's processors are the best, but iOS isn't dazzling the people it needs to win over. Android just doesn't suck enough to lose its Asian audience. And they don't have any privacy anyway over in China, so it's not like Apple can use privacy as a selling point there.

They just don't have anything the Chinese want at any price Apple is likely willing to accept. And the Chinese manufacturers offer any phone color anybody could possibly want, even in crazy gradient effects. So I think the recent traitorous attempt to rebrand Product Red to "China Red" isn't going to help anything and in fact gives bad optics here.

There's actually much Apple could still do to expand its market share in Europe, other Asian regions, and even here in the USA. Perhaps they need to start thinking about doing just that while they figure out a new China strategy that offers Chinese consumers something truly substantive over the competition.

You are completely correct.
I frowned upon Huawei, but when my carrier offered me the Mate 20 Lite -which doesn't include all of their flagship phones tech- and showed all the features that basically cover what the iPhone XR offers, followed by the phrase "For 6,000 pesos" (about 300 dollars) I immediately accepted the phone. Beautiful "optical" finish that looks way better in person than on photos, amazing AI dual lens 20+2MP photos on both front and back cameras, EMUI 8.2 (Huawei's custom Android flavor,) USB-C connector, dual sim, expandable to 256GB via flash card... and to top it all, battery can last up to 3 and a half days if you enable extreme energy saver mode when you go to bed... and the list goes on regarding software features.
It screamed backup phone at me in the beginning. Now it replaced my iPhone SE completely, even though I don't like big screens nor Android. Those phones are so good at very attractive prices that I fell for one, and like you said, that's what Apple is facing in China.

Good. They don't have to sell their kidneys then.

I've never seen no many promos with new iPhones... Signs of the times...

That’s so true, this is what happens when I go to the Apple site here in Australia. Instead of nice flashy Apple products being displayed, you get this....

So desperate. Anything that keeps them from lowering the price

That’s so true, this is what happens when I go to the Apple site here in Australia. Instead of nice flashy Apple products being displayed, you get this....

Just shows how expensive they are. Trading in a phone AND free financing to buy a damn phone + they aren’t even talking about the Xs Max. That’s even worse!

I've never seen no many promos with new iPhones... Signs of the times...

This is new indeed.

Apple traditionally has never done sales, or at least big sales. People complain about Apple's black Friday deals a lot, due to how little the discounts are.

The thing is, Apple never really needed to do these type of discounts, as people purchased their products regardless of premium price due to the perception that they were better than the competition.

Apple also seem to not care about market share until somewhat recently. It is hard for any company to maintain high market share for a premium priced product.

I still think that Apple's products are overall better than the competition, but the gap has narrowed, and people, especially the people in China, are willing to use a slightly worse product that is much cheaper, then pay for Apple's slightly better, but much more expensive product.

It's not just a pricing problem Apple has in China. Few people on this forum want to acknowledge how good the Chinese offerings have gotten and how well they integrate with the services and social media China has.

There was a person on this forum last year who is living in China and they said Apple services and the cloud don't work well there. I can't verify that but we have read numerous times on this very site how Apple's policies have clashed with how Chinese consumers actually use services.

And on top of that, the latest Huawei flagships have specs and features that are a genuine threat to Apple and Samsung offerings even outside of China. What they're doing with cameras is amazing. I am no fan of Huawei, (quite the opposite) so it's with trepidation that I keep an eye on how far they've come on their own (on the backs of filched IP). My husband has tested a P30 Pro and it's last year's model with performance that even this year's phones will be hard pressed to beat. In terms of all around performance it is rock solid and the battery life is insane. Apple and Samsung really need to match or exceed what Huawei is doing. The race is on.

Apple's processors are the best, but iOS isn't dazzling the people it needs to win over. Android just doesn't suck enough to lose its Asian audience. And they don't have any privacy anyway over in China, so it's not like Apple can use privacy as a selling point there.

They just don't have anything the Chinese want at any price Apple is likely willing to accept. And the Chinese manufacturers offer any phone color anybody could possibly want, even in crazy gradient effects. So I think the recent traitorous attempt to rebrand Product Red to "China Red" isn't going to help anything and in fact gives bad optics here.

There's actually much Apple could still do to expand its market share in Europe, other Asian regions, and even here in the USA. Perhaps they need to start thinking about doing just that while they figure out a new China strategy that offers Chinese consumers something truly substantive over the competition.

That’s all right. Once they exhaust all options and determine that it wasn’t enough for sales to increase, they’ll have to lower the price. Well, we can hope...