China’s two key e-commerce platforms have slashed prices of Apple’s iPhone XR and iPhone 8 by up to 20%. The price drop comes amid Apple’s weakening sales of its smartphones in one of its important markets.
JD.com, which is said to China’s biggest e-commerce platform, has slashed prices of Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by 20%. Suing.com, another major e-commerce platform, dropped prices Apple’s latest iPhone XR by 1,299 Yuan (Rs 13,500 approximately).
Interestingly enough, JD.com’s discount was authorised by Apple whereas Suing.com said the discounts were part of its annual promotional activities, reported CNET.
According to a Nikkei report, Apple’s main hardware supplier Foxconn reported 8% dip in sales in December, 2018. The report added other hardware suppliers were also bearing the brunt of slow demand of new Apple products.
Apple earlier this month announced rare forecast cut for its quarterly sales. CEO Tim cook blamed slowing iPhone sales in China for the revision.
“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a letter to investors.
Cook also turned down speculations that Apple products were hit by the ongoing US-China trade war.
“The much larger issue is the slowing of the (Chinese) economy, and then the trade tension that has further pressured it,” Cook commented.
Reports, however, indicate that Chinese companies are encouraging users to abandon iPhones after Huawei CFO was arrested in Canada over alleged financial fraud.
A Nikkei report claimed that businesses in China were offering subsidies to employees to drive device purchases of Huawei phones and ditch Apple products. Some of these offers included partial and full subsidies on Huawei smartphones.


Source: hindustantimes.com