Apple offers rare promo discounts in China to celebrate Lunar New Year

As noted by MacRumors, Apple will launch a rare promotional discount on its iPhones in China, offering customers as much as 500 yuan (about US$70) off the price of its flagship devices ahead of the Lunar New Year in February.

The promotion, which runs Jan. 18-21, applies to everything from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and also includes smaller discounts off other major Apple products like Macs, iPads, AirPods, and Apple Watch models.

The promo is almost certainly to help dipping iPhone sales in China. iPhone sales slump in China is deepening and Apple is likely to see volumes decline further this year, according to Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee — as noted by Bloomberg.

The analyst says the tech giant latest generation got off to an atypically sluggish start in China last year, which most recently expanded to a 30% year-on-year decline, Lee and colleagues said in a note on Sunday, citing industry checks. The rest of the country’s mobile market grew in December, with Huawei growing fastest on the back of its new Mate 60 device lineup.

In the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, smartphone sales in China declined 3% year-over-year (YoY) in a sign the market could be closer to bottoming out, according to Counterpoint Research. 

The Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on the lunisolar calendar. It is the most important holiday in China, and it is also widely celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, and countries with a significant overseas Chinese population.