People pass by an iPhone 16 Pro advertisement at an Apple store during National Day on October 3, 2024 in Chongqing, China.
Cheng Xin | News from Getty Images | Getty Images
Apple is offering discounts on its top-end iPhones and other products in China to mark the upcoming Chinese New Year, as the US tech giant faces increased competition in one of its most important markets.
The Cupertino giant is offering customers 500 Chinese yuan ($68.50) for iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max and 400 yuan for iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus. The offers also include discounts on iPhone 14 and iPhone 15.
Apple has long shied away from offering discounts through its own retail channels. Instead, third-party retailers would offer deals at certain times of the year. However, as competition increased, Apple was more willing to release seasonal offers last year.
Apple last year it offered a similar deal to celebrate Chinese New Year and in May, the company offered big discounts as part of China's 618 Shopping Festival.
The company's latest challenge comes from a resurgent Huawei and other domestic brands. Apple's smartphone shipments in mainland China in the third quarter of 2024 declined 6% year-on-year, according to Canalys. The company's market share also fell to 14% from 16% a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Huawei saw shipments grow 24% year-on-year, Canalys data showed, and the company's market share reached 16% from 13% a year earlier.
Huawei, which was once the world's largest smartphone maker before US sanctions crippled its mobile phone business, has done just that from the second half of 2023, it aggressively introduced new devices to the market. These devices they contain chips that many thought would be difficult to produce due to US restrictions imposed on Huawei.
Last year, a Chinese technology company launched the first of its kind tri-fold phone in order to demonstrate its technological capabilities.