“As rumored last week, Apple is indirectly lowering the price of the iPhone XR in Japan through larger carrier subsidies. On a 24 month contract, new customers to NTT Docomo can save about $100 over the life of their plan with the new reduced price,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.
“The carrier business model in Japan relies on device subsidies to attract customers, similar to how the US smartphone market used to work. Total instalments for iPhone XR 64 GB on a 24 month contract would total 36,000 yen before this announcement,” Mayo reports. “Now, the device cost drops to 24,000 yen (excluding the price of the mandatory contract fees).”
“Including a typical contract package, iPhone XR 64 GB on NTT Docomo is now available for around 7000 yen ($62) per month,” Mayo reports. ” We would expect other carriers in Japan to follow suit and match the lower prices in the coming days.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully that’s enough to move some more XR units.
If there actually is an issue with iPhone XR sales — and the jury is still way out on that one — that could be a good thing for Apple as it could mean that when spending over $750 on an iPhone, more people than ever say to themselves, “Well, I might as well get the very best one available,” and buy the iPhone Xs Max over iPhone XR. This would positively impact Apple’s iPhone ASP, of course. — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Apple to lower iPhone XR pricing in Japan in order to boost sales – November 23, 2018
Misreading Apple’s supply chain and iPhone XR demand – November 15, 2018
Everyone says Apple is desperate because the company is lowering an iPhone product price. So, any time a company adjusts prices to move a product, is that considered desperation? Sometimes I really don’t understand article writers. If Apple did nothing in terms of a price adjustment, I’m sure these writers would still have something negative to say about Apple like, “Apple’s iPhone market is collapsing and they’re doing nothing to correct the problem.” Aren’t people always asking for Apple to make really inexpensive iPhones? Apple is damned if it does do something and damned if it doesn’t do something.
Anyway, I hope the price reduction does sell more iPhones but it probably won’t be enough. Unfortunately, we’ll never know since Apple will no longer be reporting iPhone unit sales at the next earnings report.
This is still a far cry from when RIM started offering BOGO BlackBerry sales when the company started to struggle to move inventory. Whether Apple ends up the same way, only time will tell.
I agree, macnificentseven48. Both the headline and the article are misleading.
First, the “price” of the iPhone Xr is not “dropping.” Rather, the carrier is offering a contract discount. That is nothing new at all – in fact, Android phones are often subsidized using BOGO offers. Should that be advertised as a 50% price drop on Android phones?
Second, it does not appear to me that Apple is involved in this, either directly or “indirectly” as stated in the article. But I admit that I did not research this more deeply – it just wasn’t that important to me.
But realistically, Apple should have priced the XR to blow it out of the park intstead of a bunt to hope to make it to 1st base.