No matter how fierce the "complaints" about the new generation iPhone are on the Internet, it seems that the popularity of iPhone 15 series reservations and spot sales has not changed in reality. On September 22, four iPhone15 series models were officially launched. Before 9 a.m., a reporter from "Daily Economic News" came to the Apple Direct Store in Yitian Holiday Plaza, Shenzhen. No one was queuing up, but the store was overcrowded. In addition to picking up "fruit fans" of the new phone, there were also many consumers who came to experience the new phone.
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Apple Online Store (China)
On the first day of the new model’s release, there were a large number of “scalpers” waiting to recycle the new model at the entrance of Apple’s direct-operated stores.
According to AppleStore staff, only consumers who have made an appointment to purchase the phone in advance can enter the store to pick up the new phone. There is no stock in the store, so it is recommended to order on the official website.
The reporter noticed several "scalpers" who were trading at the scene. They carried more than ten Apple shopping bags. When they saw users who got new machines from the Apple Store, they would take the initiative to recycle the new machines. "The price of iPhone 15 Pro Max is about 700 yuan, blue is not required, 512GB is the best, 1TB is not easy to sell." As for iPhone15 and iPhone15Pro, many "scalpers" do not accept the goods.
Some scalpers said that the iPhone 15 Pro can be recycled at the original price, the iPhone 15 Pro Max (256GB) can be recycled at an additional price of 600 yuan, and the blue (512GB) can be recycled at a maximum of 400-500 yuan. When a consumer asked: "Can't the iPhone 15 Pro Max just be recycled at an additional price of 700 yuan?" The scalper responded: "There are a lot of goods now, 700 yuan just now, 500-600 yuan now, if you don't sell it, it will become 400 yuan in a while."
"Scalpers" carry multiple Apple shopping bags to recycle new machines.
iPhone 15 Pro Max has a maximum premium of 1,500 yuan
On the evening of September 15, Apple's iPhone 15 series models officially opened for pre-order. Many "Apple fans" rushed to Apple's official website immediately. While the first batch of new models were sold out in "seconds", Apple's official website also experienced page freezes and other problems. The "Daily Economic News" reporter noticed that the current delivery time for iPhone 15 ordered from Apple's official website is October 13; for iPhone 15, it is October 17; while the estimated delivery time for 15 Pro after ordering online is from October 24 to October 31, and for ProMax, it is longer, from November 14 to November 21, requiring a wait of nearly two months.
On the first day of sale of the iPhone 15 series, inside the Apple direct store of Shenzhen Yitian Holiday Plaza.
The reporter randomly interviewed several scalpers at the scene on the pretext of buying a new phone. One of them said that if you want to buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you will have to pay an additional price of 1,500 yuan, and the iPhone 15 Pro will increase the price by 1,000 yuan. But in fact, depending on the color and memory of the specific model, scalpers generally only increase the price by 500-700 yuan for recycling the iPhone 15 Pro Max. In other words, scalpers can almost make double the price difference by selling a mobile phone.
However, another scalper said, "If you want iPhone 15 Pro, you can just add 200 yuan."
Unlike last year, when consumers generally pursued large memory, resulting in large price premiums, large memory does not seem to be very popular this year. After asking multiple scalpers, the reporter learned that the 256GB iPhone 15Pro is relatively more popular and can be recycled at an additional price of 150 yuan to 200 yuan, while the 512GB may not be recycled. Another "Fruit Fan" complained that last year he made 1,200 yuan by buying a large memory and reselling it, but this year he only made 300 yuan with the Pro1Tb. Some scalpers even said they would only resell it for 50 yuan. As for the iPhone 15 Promax, when the reporter first arrived at the Apple Store, scalpers could increase the price by 700 yuan for recycling. An hour later, the price increase had fallen back to 500 yuan to 600 yuan.
Shenzhen Yitian Holiday Plaza Apple Direct Store.
On September 21, Xiao Liu (pseudonym), a mobile phone seller in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, posted a quotation list for the iPhone 15 series on WeChat Moments. A reporter from the "Daily Economic News" noticed that most of the iPhone 15/15 Plus prices were at a premium. 150 yuan, iPhone 15 Plus (512GB) has a premium of 250 yuan; the Pro version is significantly higher, with a premium of 1,600 yuan, and the ProMax version has the highest premium, divided by memory, the premium ranges from 2,850 yuan to 3,000 yuan.
In the early morning of September 13, Apple officially released the new iPhone 15 series, including four models. The series has been upgraded in terms of interfaces, appearance materials, imaging, chips, etc. Specifically, the entire iPhone 15 series replaces the USB-C port and supports reverse charging of AirPods; in addition, this series adopts a smart island design, officially bidding farewell to the notch screen used in previous generations of iPhones; the middle frame of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus uses aviation aluminum + melted frosted glass back cover, while the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max use a titanium alloy middle frame + matte glass back cover, and the mute button is replaced by a button type.
iPhone15Pro and ProMax use titanium alloy middle frame + matte glass back cover.
In terms of imaging, iPhone15/15Plus has been upgraded to a 48-megapixel camera, and iPhone15ProMax has an exclusive periscope telephoto lens. Although the imaging capabilities of Apple mobile phones have been greatly upgraded, in fact, most of the cameras of Android flagship mobile phones have more than 50 million pixels, and periscope lenses have been used four or five years ago, and have even been decentralized to mid-range product lines this year.
The latest and most advanced features are mainly concentrated in the Pro version of the product, which has been Apple's regular practice in recent years. The newly released iPhone15Pro/ProMax uses the 3-nanometer A17Pro chip, which includes 19 billion transistors.
Apple, Huawei compete for high-end market
In recent years, the smartphone market has experienced a "cold winter". The latest report released by IDC lowered its forecast for global smartphone shipments in 2023, saying that "global smartphone shipments in 2023 will be 1.15 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 4.7%, setting a new low in ten years."
Although the overall smartphone market continues to show a downturn, the high-end market above US$600 is less affected. IDC said that in the second quarter, China's high-end mobile phone market share of over US$600 reached 23.1%, bucking the trend and growing by 3.1 percentage points compared with the same period in 2022.
Specifically in terms of manufacturer rankings, the domestic high-end market is mainly occupied by Apple. In the first half of this year, the top five manufacturers in China's mobile phone market with prices above US$600 were Apple, Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi and Honor, accounting for 67%, 15.6%, 4.2%, 3.7% and 3.2% respectively. However, the Huawei Mate60 series will be the beginning of Huawei's return to the high-end market.
According to a research report released by China Merchants Electronics, "Based on supply chain tracking, the expected stocking of core components of the Mate60 series in 2023 has been revised upwards to over 8 million units. We judge that Huawei Mate60 series terminal shipments are expected to reach 6 million units this year. Overall Huawei mobile phone sales It is expected to reach 40 million (including Nova and other series). Based on market demand trends and supply chain production capacity, we estimate that Mate/P series shipments are expected to be close to 20 million in 2024, and overall Huawei mobile phone sales are expected to reach 50-60 million (units) in 24 years.”
On September 25, Huawei’s autumn full-scenario new product launch conference will be officially held. At that time, more configuration and functional information about Huawei’s Mate60 series of new phones will also surface. Currently, according to official information released by Huawei, the Mate60 series is equipped with many cutting-edge technologies including satellite communications. With the popularity of consumers, the first batch of new phones has also been sold out in a very short time. It is foreseeable that in the fourth quarter, Apple will once again face the challenge launched by Huawei in the high-end market.