Apple will offer substantial discounts in China’s upcoming Tmall New Year shopping festival, trimming the price of the 256GB iPhone Air from Rmb7,999 to as low as Rmb5,499 after a Rmb2,000 official reduction plus a further national subsidy, a NetEase post on the Apple Tmall flagship store shows. The promotion runs from the evening of 25 January through 11 February and forms part of a wider set of reductions across the Apple line-up, including modest cuts on the iPhone 17 Pro models and larger discounts on MacBook Air and iPad Air models.
Other listed incentives include up to Rmb300 off flagship iPhone 17 Pro/17 Pro Max models, up to Rmb1,200 off MacBook Air, up to Rmb1,000 off iPad Air, and Rmb100–300 reductions on accessories such as the Apple Pencil and AirPods. The campaign is tied to the Tmall “year‑goods” shopping period, a busiest time for Chinese retail when consumers stock up for the Lunar New Year and retailers aggressively compete for market share.
The scale of the iPhone Air markdown is notable because Apple has historically preserved premium pricing in China more consistently than many Western competitors. Deep platform promotions like this have become more visible in recent years as Apple seeks to stimulate upgrades and offset slowing demand from a more saturated smartphone market and intensifying competition from domestic brands that increasingly challenge Apple at the high end.
For Chinese consumers the cut represents a significant saving and could accelerate upgrade decisions, particularly among buyers who have deferred purchases. For Apple, the move likely balances the desire to protect sales volumes and market share with short‑term margin sacrifice; promotions on popular models can also help clear inventory ahead of new product launches and blunt the appeal of aggressively priced domestic flagships.
The partnership with Tmall underscores how important China’s e‑commerce platforms remain for Apple’s sales strategy: large festivals drive volume, data and customer acquisition for both Apple and Alibaba. At the same time, the presence of a “national subsidy” in the final price suggests coordination with local incentives or trade‑in schemes that further amplify the impact of platform discounts.
Looking ahead, more targeted discounts during major shopping events are likely as Apple navigates a maturing Chinese smartphone market, a wave of premium devices from local rivals, and the need to sustain the upgrade cycle. Observers will watch first‑quarter sales figures and Alibaba’s results for signs of how effective this discounting is at converting promotional traffic into lasting market share gains.