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SHANGHAI, April 16. (Reuters). Apple Inc.’s new budget-limited iPhone SE will not increase sales in China, a Weibo poll showed, while analysts said it doesn’t support 5G networks.
Archival images of people wearing masks at the Apple Store in Shanghai, China. January 29, 2020. REUTERS / Aly Song
In a survey conducted on the Weibo social network, 60% of the nearly 350,000 respondents said they would not buy the new model, which costs $ 399 and is the cheapest iPhone available.
About a fifth said they would buy it, and the rest would appreciate the purchase. Although the respondents were not asked the reason for their decision, many noted that they would be interested if the price was lower.
“If you don’t buy it, but I don’t buy it, tomorrow the price will drop another 200 yuan ($ 28),” said Weibo in a comment that received more than 10,000 “likes.”
Apple’s share of the Chinese market – the third largest, accounting for about 15% of sales – has declined in recent years as local brands running Android launched high-end gadgets. ,
Reception for the iPhone SE was also warm in Europe, where nearly 1 million people were infected with coronavirus, and many countries closed their stores or ordered people to stay at home.
Despite the unfavorable context, the new Apple gadget will offer iPhone 6 owners an inexpensive way to upgrade to the latest and most secure version of the Apple iOS operating system for smartphones, an industry analyst said.
“These are people who have been holding their phones for four or five years until they break or the battery runs out,” said Annette Zimmermann of Gartner, a consulting company.
Competition in China has intensified as Apple competitors release gadgets that support the 5G network, which is already operating in the country, while the US giant has not yet done so.
Last week, several Chinese online stores cut iPhone 11 prices by as much as 17%. Apple sometimes allows its Chinese partners to lower prices in order to stimulate demand, although this rarely allows distributors in other countries.
(1 dollar = 7.0810 Chinese yuan)
Report by Josh Horvitz in Shanghai and drafting of Shanghai; Douglas Buswin Supplementary Report in Berlin; written by Sayantani Ghosh; Spanish edited Ricardo Figueroa
