Just weeks after staging a strong comeback in China’s fiercely competitive smartphone market, Apple is doing something it rarely does at scale: cutting prices across a wide range of products. The move comes despite a striking performance at the end of last year, when the company’s smartphone market share in China jumped 28% in the fourth quarter of 2025, enough to secure the top spot in the quarterly rankings.
Now, Apple appears to be using discounts not as a sign of weakness, but as a tool to defend momentum — and possibly to clear the decks ahead of a new product cycle.
The company has launched a limited-time Lunar New Year promotion on its official store, running from January 24 to January 27. Depending on the product, customers can receive discounts of up to 1,000 yuan, making this one of Apple’s broader pricing campaigns in recent years.
Heavy discounts on Macs, modest cuts on iPhones
The contrast between categories is hard to miss.
On the iPhone side, only three models are included: iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, and iPhone 16e.
The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are discounted by 300 yuan, bringing their prices down to 5,199 yuan and 5,699 yuan respectively.
The iPhone 16e receives a 200 yuan cut and now sells for 4,299 yuan.
Notably, none of the iPhone 17 models are part of the promotion, and the overall level of discounting on Apple’s core smartphone line remains relatively conservative.
The real price aggression is in Apple’s Mac lineup:
- 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5): 800 yuan off
- 14-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro): 1,000 yuan off
- 14-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Max): 1,000 yuan off
- 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro): 1,000 yuan off
- 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Max): 1,000 yuan off
- 15-inch MacBook Air (M4): 800 yuan off
- 13-inch MacBook Air (M4): 700 yuan off
- iMac: 600 yuan off
- Mac mini: 400 yuan off
Apple is also discounting its tablet range, with price cuts of up to 400 yuan:
- 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro (M5): 400 yuan off
- 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air (M3): 400 yuan off
- iPad with A16 chip: 200 yuan off
- iPad mini with A17 Pro: 200 yuan off
Accessories and wearables are included as well:
- Apple Pencil Pro: 100 yuan off
- Apple Watch Ultra 3: 300 yuan off
- Apple Watch Hermes Ultra 3: 300 yuan off
- Apple Watch Series 11: 200 yuan off
- Apple Watch Hermes Series 11: 200 yuan off
- Apple Watch SE3: 200 yuan off
- AirPods Max: 300 yuan off
- AirPods 4: 100 yuan off
- AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation: 100 yuan off
Momentum, but also a clear-out
On the surface, the timing looks curious. After all, Apple is coming off a quarter in which it not only regained momentum but also topped the market, thanks to that 28% surge in share in Q4 2025. Yet the scale and structure of these discounts suggest a more complex calculation.
One key factor is what comes next. New MacBooks powered by M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are expected to be launched soon, which makes the deep discounts on current models look very much like a pre-launch inventory cleanup.
By contrast, Apple is carefully protecting its most important product line. The iPhone 17 series is entirely excluded, and even the discounted iPhone 16 models only receive relatively small cuts. That restraint signals that Apple still believes it has pricing power at the top of its smartphone portfolio.
In that sense, the promotion looks less like a desperate push for volume and more like a selective, tactical adjustment: clear older stock, stimulate seasonal demand, and prepare the ground for the next wave of hardware — all while trying to lock in the market share gains it just fought so hard to reclaim.
Reader comments:
Wei Zhang: “Those Mac discounts look exactly like a clearance before the new M5 Pro and Max models arrive.”
Ming Li: “The iPhone cuts are underwhelming. 200 or 300 yuan is nothing, especially when the iPhone 17 isn’t included at all.”
