|
The
sales performance of the U.S. tech giant's latest line-up is
being closely watched in the world's largest smartphone market,
where Apple has been losing ground to competitors with cheaper
and feature-packed handsets in recent years.
The queues at the Shanghai and Beijing stores, which combined
added up to few dozen customers, were in sharp contrast to
previous years, when hundreds used to wait for hours outside
Apple's shops to be the first to grab its latest offerings.
But much of the fanfare in China has moved online where the
pre-sales for iPhone 11, priced between $699 and $1,099, started
last week.
Analysts said they had gotten off to a better start than the
last cycle a year ago. Chinese e-commerce site JD.com said day
one pre-sales for the iPhone 11 series were up 480% versus
comparable sales for the iPhone XR last year.
Among customers that took to a store in Beijing on Friday to
make a purchase in person was a programer who only gave his
surname as Liu, who said he had a model from every Apple series
since the 3G range.
He said he was particularly attracted to the more expensive
iPhone 11 Pro, which has three cameras on the back. "When it
comes to taking photos, it's better for night shots and the
image is clearer," he told Reuters.
Other customers, however, said that they were concerned that the
range was not enabled for fifth-generation networks, putting
them behind 5G models already released by China's Huawei
Technologies [HWT.UL] and smaller rival Vivo, and expressed
hopes that Apple could make it happen for its next line-up.
"I think by the end of next year, especially in big cities like
Beijing, 5G will be commonplace," said civil servant Liu Liu.
"If they don't research this then they'll lag way behind."
The in-store launch of the iPhone 11 in China came a day after
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei unveiled new smartphones which
it said were more compact, with more sensitive cameras and
wraparound screens more vivid than those of the latest iPhone,
though it played down concerns about the lack of access to
Google's popular apps.
Huawei has experienced a surge in support from Chinese consumers
after the brand was caught up in a trade war between the United
States and China, which has in turn eaten into Apple's market
share in the country.
(Reporting by Thomas Suen in Beijing, Jiang Xihao and Brenda Goh
in Shanghai; Editing by Mark Potter)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
