Apple may cut the iPhone price again to boost their sales in China, the world’s biggest mobile phone market, state media and mobile phone web sites said on Tuesday (May 04, 2010).
China Unicom, the nation's second-biggest wireless carrier and Apple’s partner of mobile phone business in China, announced last Friday (April 30, 2010) that they have cut the price of iPhone 3G (8GB), the cheapest version in their iPhone line, from 5,999 RMB yuan ($880) to 4,999 yuan ($730), the price of iPhone 3GS 16GB from 6,999 yuan to 5,888 yuan, and the price of the most expensive model iPhone 3GS 32GB from 7,999 yuan to 6,999 yuan.
The prices of China Unicom iPhone may go down further in the near future, according to the Tuesday report of the Beijing-based Pcpop.com. Pcpop.com said in the report that the price of iPhone 3GS 32GB may be set at below 6,000 yuan for local buyers.
Apple’s Challenges in the World’s Biggest Smartphone Market
Apple has been working with China Unicom to sell their smartphone in the Chinese market since October 2009. China Unicom sold more than 200,000 units of iPhone mobile handsets in the first three months. At the same speed the wireless carrier will sell over one million units of Apple’s smart cell phones in 2010. But the number is obviously not comparable to the sales of iPhone in the global market and the booming 3G users in China.
Apple estimated that the sales of iPhone would reach 36 million units in 2010. Under this circumstance, Apple will only sell no more than 3% of their iPhone in the world’s biggest mobile phone market. On the other hand, the nation’s total sales of 3G mobile phones will reach 40 million units in 2010, according to the Taiwan-based Topology Research Institute.
Challenges Force Apple to Provide Cheaper iPhone Handsets
Experts said that high prices were deterring consumers in the Chinese mobile phone market, according to a Tuesday (May 04, 2010) report of the People Daily. The iPhone price keep at a high level in the Chinese market due to the 17% tax the government levies. Under this circumstance, the Chinese consumers would rather buy the free-tax iPhone from Hong Kong or through other channels.
Another factor that forces Apple to reduce iPhone Prices is the rising challenges from the aggressive competitors such as Samsung Mobile, LG Mobile, and Sony Ericsson. Other companies also launch new mobile smartphones to challenge Apple. For example, Lenovo, the world’s No. 4 PC brand, launched LePhone, an open source Android smartphone, on April 19, 2010, aiming to challenge Apple’s iPhone.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
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