The iPhone suddenly dropped in price, and the 14 Pro dropped by up to 800 yuan! Sales in Greater China have fallen sharply, is Apple in a hurry?

 Recently, it was reported that all versions of the iPhone 14 Pro series will receive a discount of 700 yuan starting today, covering almost all authorized stores.

In order to further verify the news, a reporter from "Daily Economic News" contacted a person who works in Shangpai Apple authorized franchise store, and she said: "All series of 14 pro are discounted by 700, and it is not clear whether the range is authorized stores nationwide. "The staff of an Apple authorized franchise store located in Shenzhen Link Exhibition Central City also gave the same answer. At present, the prices of the iPhone 14 Pro series on Apple’s official website and Tmall’s official flagship store have not yet dropped. The starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro is still 7,999 yuan; the starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is still 8,999 yuan. However, on the Apple authorized franchise store of the WeChat applet, the iPhone 14 Pro series has shown a price reduction of 700 yuan. In terms of price cuts, Apple’s self-operated flagship store in JD.com offers even greater discounts. Currently, the iPhone 14 Pro series offers an immediate discount of 800 yuan. So will other brands of mobile phones follow suit? According to Southern Metropolis Daily, at present, flagship models of other brands of mobile phones have not seen a sharp drop in price, and some models have discounts for cooperation with operators. On February 6, the reporter visited a number of Apple authorized franchise stores in Shenzhen, Sunion, Coodoo and Sunpie, and learned that the discounts in each store will be launched from February 5, and the specific deadline is not yet clear. However, the price cuts of each store are different. Taking the popular iPhone 14 Pro as an example, the price reduction of Sunion stores is 600 yuan, while the price reduction of Coodoo, Sunpie and other stores is even greater, with a drop of 700 yuan. The situation of offline stores in Guangzhou is also very similar. The reporter visited the Sunion Apple Authorized Experience Store in Guangzhou Tianhe City and found that the prices of all Apple iPhone 14 products are discounted, and the discounts are divided into two levels of 400 yuan and 600 yuan. Among them, the Apple 14 series products have a discount of 400 yuan, and the iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max series all have a discount of 600 yuan, and the color matching of each series of products is very complete. A clerk at the Guangzhou Tianhe City Apple Authorized Store told a reporter from Nanduwan Finance and Economics that on the basis of the general price reduction of iPhones, relevant discounts for cooperation with operators can also be superimposed. On the online platform, Apple’s self-operated flagship store of JD.com also launched a special offer. The iPhone 14 Pro series will get a discount of 800 yuan for a limited time. The event time is from February 5th to 15th. In the early hours of February 3, Apple released its quarterly report for the 2023 fiscal year (the quarterly report for the 2022 natural year as of December 31). The total net sales in the first fiscal quarter were US$117.154 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5%, lower than the market The expected $121.104 billion. It is worth noting that this is the first time that Apple has experienced a year-on-year decline in revenue since fiscal 2019. The net profit for the period was US$29.998 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 13%; the gross profit margin for the quarter was 43%, compared to 43.8% for the same period last year. Apple’s first fiscal quarter of each fiscal year covers the shipment of new iPhones launched in the fall. In addition, the holiday shopping season at the end of the year usually has strong demand, and it is also a window to reflect the sales of new iPhones. Therefore, This quarter also tends to be Apple's highest-grossing quarter. However, the first fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2023 was less than expected. In terms of business, in addition to the year-on-year increase in iPad revenue and service revenue in Apple's first fiscal quarter, iPhones, Mac computers, wearables and other terminal hardware all declined. Among them, the net sales of the revenue "responsible" iPhone business were US$65.775 billion, a decrease of 8% from US$71.628 billion in the same period of the previous year, while the net sales in Greater China fell the most, at US$23.905 billion, a decrease of 8% from the same period last year. The 25.783 billion US dollars fell by 7.3%. As for the reason for the decline in performance, Apple CEO Cook said at the performance communication meeting that the delay in demand and channel problems caused the iPhone inventory to fall below the target, and iPhone supply was greatly challenged, and the future impact is still uncertain. But the company currently manufactures products all over the world and assembles them mainly in three countries, so supply issues will improve. He also said that the company estimates that if there were no supply chain issues for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone revenue should have risen year-over-year. The epidemic and the shortage of chips have indeed made the past three years very difficult, and the supply is currently sufficient. As the "leader" in the consumer electronics market, Apple's performance also reflects the sluggish demand in the terminal market from the side. In fact, according to a report released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) a few days ago, in the fourth quarter of 2022, global smartphone shipments fell by 18.3% year-on-year to 300.3 million units, the largest single-quarter decline since records began. Looking at the whole year of 2022, the situation is not optimistic. IDC said that the annual shipments in 2022 will drop by 11.3% year-on-year to 1.21 billion units, the lowest annual shipments since 2013, mainly due to the sharp decline in consumer demand, inflation and economic uncertainty. Nabila Popal, director of research at IDC, even said bluntly: "We have never seen shipments in the holiday season lower than the previous quarter. However, weak demand and high inventories have caused suppliers to slash shipments." .What this holiday quarter has taught us is that rising inflation and growing macro concerns continue to hold back consumer spending, even more than expected." For the top five manufacturers, shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022 will all experience double-digit percentage declines, and Apple is no exception. Apple’s smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter were 72.3 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.9%, but ranked first in market share; Samsung ranked second, with a year-on-year decrease of 15.6% to 58.2 million units. Ranked third to fifth were: Xiaomi fell 26.3% to 33.2 million; OPPO fell 15.9% to 25.3 million; vivo fell 18.9% to 22.9 million.