Thanks to the launch of the new iPhone SE, Apple's overall iPhone shipments in the Chinese market have received a big boost, with its April sales reaching 3.9 million units, up 160 percent from 1.56 million units in March.
According to Tencent Tech, Apple sold 3.9 million iPhones in China in April, up 160 percent from 1.56 million in March, with the new iPhone SE's contribution able to account for nearly 25 percent of sales.
Apple sells its merchandise through several official retail stores, including the official Tmall flagship store.
According to e-commerce technology and marketing firm WPIC, the number of products Apple sold through its Tmall flagship store in April this year rose 40 percent year-on-year to $127.4 million.
iPhone sales through Tmall grew 33% year-over-year to over $80 million.
Meanwhile, there are also signs that Apple's service revenue is improving. While Apple owns many services such as Apple Music and iCloud, it can currently only estimate based on the App Store's Chinese consumer spending. That figure was $1.53 billion in April this year, up 7 percent from a year ago, according to Sensor Tower, an app spending tracking company.
New iPhone SE lift sales are very noticeable
Apple released the second-generation iPhone SE in mid-April this year, followed by sales in China. The product starts at 3299 yuan, but interestingly, not long after its release, some e-commerce platforms began to use it for promotion, with a special price of around 2800 yuan, which also boosted its sales from the side.
According to the survey report, although the iPhone SE only went on sale at the end of April this year, but accounted for about 25% of Apple's total sales of 3.9 million iPhones in April, its shipments of nearly 1 million units.
This also shows that its price/performance ratio is still very popular among users. Although the form factor is the same as the iPhone 8, the A13 processor is upgraded to provide almost the same user experience as the iPhone 11 series.
Some analysts say that the situation remains dire.
Not just Apple, but all smartphone manufacturers. Apple's current situation is tough because the economic environment is not so good and consumer sentiment has not returned to normal levels.
Apple's only product in this class is the iPhone SE, while companies like Xiaomi or Huawei can lure consumers with their low-priced products.
Chinese consumers love it.
According to previous research data, the iPhone 6 and 6S series still have a lot of users in the Chinese market, and this new iPhone SE release is also aimed at this segment of users.
GregJoswiak, Apple's vice president of product marketing, said in a previous interview that Chinese users are very receptive to the new iPhone SE.
Cook also said that the new iPhone SE is not a smooth iOS system, which is Apple's traditional advantage, but rather the hardware configuration, very cheaply equipped with the engine of Apple's top phones, which is faster than the fastest Android phones, is simply too much.
On the iPhone SE's price/performance ratio, Cook was equally enthusiastic: "I think it (the new iPhone SE) is suitable for every market in the world, especially where the average income is low will be more prominent, we'll just wait and see, and a lot of people will move to the iOS camp because of it."
Some industry sources say that cheapness is a great asset for the new iPhone SE, and as time goes on, the price of the new iPhone SE will continue to fall, when its sales in the country will continue to climb, but not supporting 5G is its biggest shortcoming.
5G phones begin to accelerate
On this year's Telecom Day, the three major operators have said that the sudden epidemic will not affect their goal of achieving 5G network coverage in all prefecture-level cities nationwide by the end of this year.
A report from market research agency StrategyAnalytics shows that 5G handset sales are expected to start by the end of 2020, when more mid-range and even low-end 5G handsets will be launched, especially in the Chinese market.
According to the industry chain, driven by domestic mobile phone manufacturers, the current 5G mobile phone industry chain is rapidly expanding, and it is expected that in the fourth quarter of 2020, there will be more 5G mobile phones less than 2,000 yuan to launch (currently Redmi has launched a 5G mobile phone below 2,000 yuan).
At that time, the commercial post 5G network will also be relatively mature, 5G mobile phone replacement wave will be kicked off at that time.
