People walk past an advertisement for the iPhone 16 Pro at an Apple store during a national holiday on Oct. 3, 2024, in Chongqing, China.
Cheng Xin | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Apple is offering discounts on its high-end iPhones and other products in China for the upcoming Chinese New Year as the US tech giant faces increased competition in one of its most important markets.
The Cupertino giant is giving customers a discount of 500 Chinese yuan ($68.50) on the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max, and 400 yuan on the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus. The deals also include discounts on iPhone 14 and iPhone 15.
Apple has long resisted offering discounts through its own retail channels. Instead, third-party merchants would offer deals at certain times of the year. However, as competition grows, Apple has been more inclined to release seasonal deals over the past year.
Apple offered a similar Chinese New Year deal last year and in May the company offered hefty discounts as part of the Chinese 618 shopping festival.
The latest challenge for the company has come from the resurgence of Huawei and other domestic brands. Apple smartphone shipments fell 6% year-on-year in mainland China in the third quarter of 2024, according to Canalys. The company’s market share also fell to 14% from 16% a year earlier.
Huawei, meanwhile, saw shipments jump 24% year-on-year, Canalys data showed, while the company’s market share reached 16% from 13% a year earlier.
Huawei, which was once the world’s number one smartphone maker before US sanctions crippled its phone business, aggressively launched new devices from the second half of 2023. These devices contain chips that many thought would be difficult to produce due to US restrictions on Huawei.
Last year, a Chinese technology company launched a the first triple phone of its kind in an attempt to demonstrate its technological capabilities.
