It has finally happened. Apple is lastly changing its stance
on its flat pricing policy for its products across the globe. That premium
pricing may have worked in the past but it is now costing Apple millions of income.
For the first time ever, Apple has slashed the prices of some of its products
in China, counting iPhones, iPads, Macs, and even AirPods. This is mostly in
response to changing economic factors in that market as well as the fiercer opposition
from Chinese phone makers.
CEO Tim Cook shared previous January how revenues dropped by
as much as $9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 and pinned it down to the
greater China region which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In
response, Apple has lowered the price of its products on authorized retail
partners such as JD.com and Tmall. Now for the first time, its own Chinese
online store is sparkly those changes.
The iPhone XR, for example, now costs 6,199 RMB instead of
6,499 RMB previous week. The iPhone XS and XS Max also got a 500 RMB price cut.
That translates to a dissimilarity of around $75.
There are other factors that may have led to Apple’s
historic decision. It has started losing its place in the market, being pushed downhill
the ranks by the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo who have a home court
advantage. This, however, could also play into Apple’s shift absent from a
hardware-centric company to a service-centric one.
Regardless, Apple has now exposed its willingness to change
its pricing scheme, at slightest when the factors all approach together. Those
very similar factors may be present in India, yet another big market where
Apple’s flat international pricing is doing more harm than good.
Comments
Post a Comment