Before Apple launched iphone 5s and 5c, analysts predicted that China would be a huge market for these two types of smart phone, especially for iphone 5s with the gold colour. Because Chinese people love gold colour and it means a lot to them. In my opinion, Apple typically wants to seize this psychological characteristic because obviously they consider China as a huge potential market. Also, the gold colour is basically popular in the world, and one of the important reasons is that it stands for wealth. Superficially, I mean, who don’t like money?
But what confused me before were the prices for those two types of smart phone. The price gap between 5s and 5c is so small. In China, if people choose to buy the newest model, do they really care the 800yuan? It’s not a big deal. iphone 5s successfully satisfy more than their needs. In other word, maybe what they want to buy is a sense of superiority. However, iphone 5c seem like “toys” (well, not really) for youngsters partly because of the plastic material with bright colours. Currently in China, iphone 5c is selling with discount. For example, “the retailer has reduced the price of Apple’s 16GB iphone 5c by 789 yuan – around $129”.
Indeed, Apple is applying the low-cost iphone strategy to have more sales volume around the world. They want to explore and expand the markets in developing countries. What excites Apple is that “they sold 9 million new iphones during their first three days in stores after China joined the list of launch countries for the first time”. It is a big incentive for Apple, and this will encourage them to pay more attention to developing countries.
Works cited:
Kaneshige, Tom. CIO.com. (par.6) Web. 25 Sep. 2013.
http://www.cio.com/article/740349/Why_Wall_Street_and_Tech_Analysts_Got_the_iPhone_5S_Wrong
White, Joe. Appsgonefree. (par.2) Web. 27 Sep. 2013
Gupta, Poornima and Saba, Jennifer. Reuters.com. Web. 23 Sep. 2013 (EDT)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/23/us-apple-iphone-idUSBRE98J0LD20130923
Related readings:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/09/26/analyst-predicts-apple-will-lower-iphone-prices-abroad/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/09/27/iphone-5s-is-three-times-more-popular-than-the-5c/