Apple's (AAPL.US) iPhone 16 not selling well? Chinese online retailers are offering discounts early

Chinese online retailers have reportedly cut prices ahead of the official launch of Apple's (AAPL.US) new iPhone 16 series.

PDD (PDD.US) began selling the iPhone 16 Plus with 512GB of storage for Rmb8,999 ($1,268), a 10% discount from the official price of Rmb9,999. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 with 128GB of storage is being sold with an even bigger 11% discount.

PDD and the Taobao platform of Alibaba (BABA.US) are offering a 4% discount, or a Rmb400 cut, on the 256GB iPhone 16 Pro Max. Alibaba's Tmall shopping platform offers buyers the option of 24 instalment payments with no interest.

The discounts suggest weak demand for Apple's new phones in China, the world's largest and one of the most competitive smartphone markets.

The iPhone 16 series will officially launch on September 20, but will not include Apple's new artificial intelligence service, Apple intelligence, which will be launched in the US next month.

Apple will launch English-language versions of its AI tools in several markets in December, while other language versions, including Chinese, will not be available until next year.

On Monday, it was reported that estimated pre-orders for the iPhone 16 series in the first weekend were about 37mn units, down about 12.7% year-on-year from the first weekend of the iPhone 15 series.

Apple has faced fierce competition in the Chinese smartphone market from Chinese rivals such as the resurgent Huawei.

According to Canalys, Huawei's smartphone shipments in China grew 41 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, while Apple's iPhone shipments declined by about two percentage points in the same period.