China’s mobile phone sector has endured bad sales in recent years as gadget consignments have decreased, with the numbers likely accentuating more signs of pain for Apple in the world’s largest smartphone market. According to CAICT data, mobile phone consignments in China totaled 14.51 million in February, representing an almost 20% year-on-year decrease (China Academy of Information and Communications Technology). According to the CAICT, an administration-supported research institution, smartphone consignments totaled 13.8 million.
Due to the week-long Lunar New Year holidays and the fact that new phones are released at the end of the month, February is often a slow month for smartphone sales in China. However, according to the CAICT, February 2019 was the worst month for consignments since at least 2013. According to Xi Wang, Senior Market Analyst at IDC, the public holidays, as well as a variety of other variables such as an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy, a saturated smartphone market, and retailers having excess inventory, all had a role in February’s bad performance. Wang went on to say that smartphone merchants may send a large number of smartphones to suppliers in January, exceeding demand, in order to have a “strong start” to the year. They will then cut consignments in February, leaving sellers with an abundance of inventory.
In terms of the Chinese smartphone industry, it was recently reported that Apple is giving interest-free loans to Chinese clients since the iPhone is too pricey for them. According to The Wall Street Journal, in order to make Apple products more affordable to Chinese consumers, the tech giant is collaborating with Alipay, a Chinese mobile payment network, to provide up to two years of interest-free financing. Customers who purchase items from Apple costing at least 4,000 Yuan will be eligible for interest-free financing that can be paid off in 3, 6, 9, 12, or 24 months.
