Apple is preparing to boost the iPhone XR price by providing subsidies to Japanese mobile network operators to boost sales. Now this price reduction plan has finally come out.
According to the Nikkei News, Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo announced that it offers a purchase discount of up to 30% for users who purchase a 64G version of the iPhone XR contract machine for two years. The official price is 84,800 yen (about 5226 RMB). The iPhone XR only needs 25,920 yen (about 1585 RMB) in the new program.
Apple has taken such a large subsidy for new machines that have just sold for a month, which is not common in the past. According to data from Japanese research firm BCN, iPhone XR sales in Japan are not as good as those of iPhone 8, and a large Japanese dealer also said that iPhone XR sales in the past three months are lower than the iPhone X in the same period last year. 30%
Many Japanese consumers think that the XR price reduction of the display and camera is not high, and after the introduction of the operator’s price reduction plan, it should be improved.
Like the US, smartphones in Japan are generally bundled with operators’ traffic plans. In the past, the iPhone also won 46.7% of Japan’s market share through the carrier’s large discount contract machine, making it the most popular smartphone in Japan.
In fact, before the announcement of this price reduction plan, the price of the iPhone XR in the operator NTT Docomo two-year contract package only needs 36,000 yen (about 2200 RMB). This price cut can be said to make iPhone XR Japan the most ” The price/performance ratio of the phone.
It is unclear whether Japan’s other two major mobile operators, KDDI and Softbank, will also cut prices, but NTT Docomo’s sharp price cuts have already attracted controversy. A meeting of scholars from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan issued an urgent proposal yesterday, stating that such excessive discounts would undermine market competition and require that telecommunications providers should completely separate the cost of calls in the preferential scheme from the cost of purchases.
However, behind this, there is a multi-point distribution of interests. Apple and other mobile phone manufacturers and Japanese operators are not necessarily willing to compromise. For consumers, such a discount is of course a favorite.
Japan has always been the cheapest country to buy iPhones outside the US, and the lock version is simply “cabbage price.” Many consumers are planning to return to China with a Japanese iPhone XR.
Locked version on the e-commerce platform iPhone X.
However, it should be noted that this price reduction is the contract machine provided by the operator, which is also known as the “Japanese lock version”. For the Japanese version of the iPhone XR contract machine, because it enjoys the operator’s subsidy concession, it can only use the operator’s service and cannot be used in China. Even if it is unlocked by means of card stickers, there are still many risks, and it is impossible to enjoy the country. National Union Warranty Service.