Apple launches another round of iPhone discounts in China while Ming-Chi Kuo predicts iPhone 16 colors
It's being reported this morning that Apple has launched a new aggressive discounting campaign on its official Tmall site in China, offering discounts of up to 2,300 yuan ($318) on select iPhone models. The campaign will run from May 20 to May 28 and is more substantial than the one Apple offered back in February.
The discounting comes as the U.S. tech giant seeks to defend its position in the high-end smartphone market, where it faces increasing competition from local rivals, especially from Huawei that launched their new Pura 70 last month.
While the highest discount in the February campaign was 1,150 yuan, this time discounts are up to 2,300 yuan. The steepest discount applies to the 1TB iPhone 15 Pro Max model, while other models also see significant price cuts. Reuters
The South China Morning Post added that The top-of-the-line 256-gigabyte iPhone 15 Pro Max model, for example, on Monday started selling for 7,949 yuan (US$1,100) on Apple’s official online stores on JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall platform – down 2,050 yuan, or 20 per cent off, from its 9,999-yuan price tag when the new series was released last September. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The basic 128GB iPhone 15 model, meanwhile, now costs 23 per cent less at 4,599 yuan, down from its previous price of 5,999 yuan, on both JD.com and Tmall. The sale runs from May 20 to 28, according to the two platforms.
Apple’s mainland online Apple Store, however, kept the recent prices of iPhone 15 models unchanged.
In other iPhone news, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the colors for the iPhone 16 models as follows:
- iPhone 16 Pro & Pro Max: black, white (or silver), grey (I think it's natural titanium) and rose
- iPhone 16 & 16 Plus: black, green, pink, blue, white
- Apple may rename colors (e.g., previously called white as starlight). Also, even if the color name is the same as the existing model, it may look different.