Apple has cut prices of its iPhone 15 models in China to a new low, offering discounts of up to 20% on its flagship product amid intense competition in the world's largest smartphone market.
Online retailer Alibaba's Tmall started offering deeper discounts on iPhone 15 models on Monday, with the top-of-the-line 256GB iPhone 15 Pro Max model selling for 7,949 yuan ($1,100), down 2,050 yuan from its previous price.
The basic 128GB iPhone 15 model now costs 23% less at 4,599 yuan, down from its previous price of 5,999 yuan. 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. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The aggressive discounts on the two major online platforms show the lengths being taken by Apple to boost domestic demand for its flagship product, more than a month after iPhone sales in the firm's Greater China region declined 8% to $16.4 billion in the March quarter.
Apple's iPhone market share in mainland China shrank to 15.7% in the March quarter, down from 20.2% a year earlier, amid stiff domestic competition from Chinese smartphone vendors such as Vivo, Honor, and Huawei.
However, the recent iPhone discount drives appear to have helped Apple, with shipments of foreign-branded smartphones in March growing 12% from the same period last year, according to data published earlier this month by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology."
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