This is the fourth iPhone price cut this year. Will Apple cut prices once a month?

Apple, which has lowered its prices every month this year, adjusted its prices again on April 1st.

On that day, "Apple price cuts" was a hot search on Weibo. The reporter logged into Apple's official website in China and saw that the prices of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max were both reduced by 500 yuan, and iPhone 8 was 300 yuan cheaper.

In terms of product types, the price drop of many Macbook and iPad products was around 2.58%, while the drop of iPhone was relatively large, exceeding 4%.

Before this price adjustment, Apple products had already reduced their prices three times in China this year, but the price reduction channels were major e-commerce platforms. This time, Apple's official website and official flagship store directly reduced prices. An Apple mobile phone channel dealer in Zhongguancun told reporters that the channel price of Apple products has basically not changed.

The reporter learned from an insider that the price reduction was related to value-added tax. Apple officials said that no further information would be released except for public information.

In response to this, Apple customer service told reporters that due to the adjustment of the national tax rate, Apple has readjusted the tax portion of the product prices. This time the tax rate was adjusted from 16% to 13%, and the price reduction range for different products also varies.

The price of a single product is reduced by 8%, and the price difference can be refunded within 14 days

According to the "Announcement on Relevant Policies for Deepening VAT Reform" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement") recently issued by the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the General Administration of Customs, starting today, for general VAT taxpayers (hereinafter referred to as taxpayers) who engage in VAT taxable sales or import goods, the tax rate originally subject to 16% will be adjusted to 13%; the tax rate originally subject to 10% will be adjusted to 9%.

In addition to Apple's official website, Apple's Tmall flagship store announced a comprehensive price cut today. Tmall explained that this move was in response to the VAT reduction policy. Based on this calculation, with the implementation of the policy, the maximum price reduction of Apple's single product has reached 8%.

According to Apple's official website, "Apple reserves the right to change the prices of products displayed in the Apple Store at any time, and Apple reserves the right to correct pricing errors that may occur unintentionally. If Apple reduces the price of any Apple-branded product within 14 calendar days of the date you receive the product, please call 400-666-8800 to contact the Apple Contact Center to request a refund of the difference between the price you paid and the current selling price, or exchange for a credit. You must contact Apple within 14 calendar days of the price change to receive a refund or credit. This policy does not apply to limited-time price cuts."

A user told the reporter that the Apple product he purchased has not been shipped yet, but he has received the price difference refunded by JD.com. The reporter contacted the customer service of Apple's JD.com flagship store, who said that if the product meets the insurance requirements, the customer service can apply for a price refund within 7 days of order completion.

However, the reporter noticed that some users had difficulty in getting refunds. Some users on Weibo complained that they had to queue up to call to get a refund for the price difference. Zhang Li (pseudonym) bought an iPad Air and an Apple Pencil at the Coodoo store in Baohe Wanda Plaza in Hefei on March 29, spending a total of 4,520 yuan. Zhang Li said that the store refused to refund the price difference, and the reason given was that no one was willing to pay for the price difference, and neither the company nor he personally would pay.

In response, Apple customer service said that if you purchase at an authorized store, you need to contact the authorized dealer to coordinate the price difference.

iPhone's monthly price cuts drive sales

Since the beginning of this year, we have seen news of "crazy" price cuts for iPhones every month.

On January 11, JD.com and Suning lowered the prices of some iPhone models, with a drop of more than 1,000 yuan compared to the price quoted on Apple's official website. The Beijing News reporter noticed that the price reduction of Apple phones is not limited to e-commerce platforms. Shenzhen Huaqiangbei mobile phone dealers received price reduction information from Apple, and multiple series of products began to reduce prices. Regarding the price adjustment, JD.com revealed to reporters that it was officially notified and authorized by Apple. However, the reporter called Apple customer service, and the other party said that they had not received any price reduction notification.

The reporter learned from an Apple mobile phone channel dealer in Zhongguancun that a substantial adjustment in channel prices can indirectly reflect changes in Apple's official shipping prices. For example, if the channel price drops by 500 yuan, the official shipping price will be much higher than this drop, possibly reaching 1,000 yuan.

In this regard, Wu Yiwen, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research institution, told reporters that this is a short-term strategy that is more related to the inventory of existing products. From a medium- to long-term perspective, the new models released by Apple in 2019 and their pricing are more worthy of attention. Apple's current product and pricing strategies are high, which is not conducive to the growth of shipments and the number of mobile phone users.

Just before the price cut on January 3, Apple CEO Cook issued an open letter saying that the revenue forecast for the first quarter of fiscal year 2019 would be lowered from $89 billion to $91 billion to $84 billion. The reason was attributed to the economic slowdown in the Chinese market and the decline in consumer demand for upgraded iPhones.

Apple's latest financial report shows that its revenue in the fourth quarter of last year was $84.3 billion, down 5% from the same period last year. CEO Cook said in a conference call after the release of the financial report that Apple is reconsidering how to price the iPhone outside of the US dollar because the US dollar price has risen sharply, making the phone more expensive as the US dollar strengthens.

On February 1, Suning Mobile officially announced that it would be the first to reduce prices. The price of the 512G iPhone XS Max dropped by 1,700 yuan compared to the price on Apple's official website.

The first round of price cuts started on March 5, and multiple e-commerce platforms have joined in. Apple authorized dealers on Tmall platform launched a new round of iPhone price adjustments, and Apple's flagship iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max joined this round of price cuts, which are 2,000 yuan cheaper than the official website price.

On March 6, Pinduoduo also announced a significant price cut for the new iPhone, and announced that during the "3.8 Festival" promotion, Pinduoduo would further reduce the prices of related products by 300 to 500 yuan on the basis of the previous low prices across the entire network. The reporter saw on the Pinduoduo platform that the price of the iPhone XS Max 256GB after coupons was 8,699 yuan, a reduction of 2,300 yuan from the price on Apple's official website.

According to the data from Tmall, the price reduction strategy has boosted sales to a certain extent. Since the new round of price cuts for iPhone started at 5 pm on March 5, as of 12:00 pm on March 7, the overall sales of iPhone on Tmall increased by 150% month-on-month. Among them, iPhone XS Max sales ranked first, up 230% month-on-month.