Apple'S New Machines Are Sold Out Quickly, Can "Price Reduction" Stimulate Electronic Consumption

Just this past week, Apple released a new generation of iPhone 13. Like a stone thrown down by the calm water, the news of the day was almost dominated by Apple's new machine.

For this generation of new models, apple tried to stabilize its market share and chose to increase the volume without increasing the price, but it was still criticized by many analysts for lack of innovation.

At 8:00 p.m. on September 17, the first round of reservation was officially opened for iPhone 13, with 18 minutes of pre purchase. More than 103000 users placed orders with CMB credit card on Apple's official website alone, and the total transaction volume exceeded 1 billion yuan. Apple's official website was once robbed and collapsed, resulting in page stuck and unable to pay. One hour after the opening of pre-sale, the first batch of stock of major platforms was also sold out.

Against the background of repeated outbreaks, China's economic growth momentum continued to slow down in August. Whether Apple can pull the electronic consumer market again in the "golden nine silver ten" has aroused the attention of the industry.

The price for quantity has achieved initial results

The most popular pink model previously reserved on tmall platform was snapped up less than 3 minutes after the pre-sale was opened. Previous data showed that as of the afternoon of September 16, more than 3 million people had ordered the iPhone 13 series on tmall.

As of September 16, Chinese consumers had ordered more than 2 million new Apple iPhone 13 series products on Jingdong, more than 1.5 million iPhone 12 units on the same platform a year ago, according to jd.com.

More than 5 million iPhone 13 have been ordered and sold on tmall and Jingdong e-commerce platforms alone.

It has to be mentioned that compared with the previous generation, the design of the iPhone 13 series has not changed much, but the camera function, processing power and battery life have been improved. In the case of configuration upgrade, the price is lower. According to the 10 billion subsidy strategy announced by pinduoduo, the price of the iPhone 13 dropped by 500 yuan compared with the official website.

Many in the industry have been surprised by the latest pricing of the iPhone. In fact, the rising costs of raw materials and electronic components have pushed up the prices of other consumer goods, such as TSMC, the industry's leading chipmaker.

Under the price reduction strategy, it is not difficult to see Apple's attempt to win by quantity. This has something to do with the weakness of China's overall consumption environment.

According to the economic operation data for August released by China's National Bureau of statistics on August 15, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in August was 3.4 trillion yuan, up 2.5% year-on-year. The growth rate was 6% lower than that in July and 3% higher than that in the same period in 2019. From January to August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 28.1 trillion yuan, up 18.1% year-on-year and 8% higher than the same period in 2019.

Affected by short-term factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic and extreme weather, the growth momentum and resilience of China's economy have been further impacted. China's retail sales in August hit the lowest growth rate in a year, but also significantly lower than market expectations.

"This is our strongest market," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, commenting on the performance of the Chinese market in the second quarter of 2021. This may also be the reason why the latest iPhone has to adopt a relatively low pricing strategy to win the favor of Chinese consumers at a time when China's overall consumption is weak.

Reshuffle of high end market

On the other side of Apple's profit maximization of 5g market by adjusting its pricing, it may lead to a decline in the market share of local brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, vivo and oppo.

According to the Ministry of industry and information technology, China's 5g industry has accelerated its development, and 5g mobile phone products have accelerated penetration. From January to August this year, the domestic 5g mobile phone shipment volume reached 168 million units, an increase of 80% year-on-year.

According to canalys data, in the domestic smartphone market in the second quarter of this year, apple shipped 7.9 million units, a year-on-year increase of only 2%, accounting for 10% of the domestic smartphone market.

Whether compared with the rapid growth of 5g mobile phones or Apple's sales in the past years, Apple's shipping volume remained stable in the first half of the year, with a small growth rate, but its revenue increased significantly. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 (April June), Apple's revenue in Greater China reached 14.76 billion US dollars (about 96.1 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 58%.

By comparison, the sales volume of high-end models is considerable. Cook also pointed out in the financial report meeting that "Greater China users have a particularly strong demand for the two high-end products of iPhone 12 pro and iPhone 12 Pro max, resulting in the performance of Greater China region becoming particularly strong."

Between the ups and downs, Apple has reaped the high-end market originally owned by Huawei. At the same time, IDC, a market research organization, said that in the past five quarters, the Android camp in the domestic high-end mobile phone market (unit price above $600) has continued to rise.

According to a report released by canalys in July, apple continued to thrive in the Chinese market, with sales in China second only to oppo, vivo and Xiaomi in the second quarter of this year.

In this context, the iPhone 13 series adopts a more favorable price strategy, which will, to a certain extent, promote the consumers who hold the corresponding price segment budget to choose the brand.

Apple revealed earlier this year that there are now more than a billion active iPhones around the world. Dan ives, an analyst at wedbush securities, estimates that of the 1 billion iPhone users, about 250 million have not changed their phones for more than 3.5 years, and are likely to be the main users of the iPhone 13.

In an interview with the 21st century economic report, people in the securities industry who did not want to be named believed that the iPhone 13 is expected to become the best-selling smart phone in China after its launch. Despite the lack of innovation, due to the suppression of Huawei's shipping volume, apple can take back part of its share to a certain extent. However, due to the small update of the product itself, it is expected that Apple's sales boom will gradually fade after more new phones are released in the mobile phone market next year.