US consumer technology giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) saw share price drop 3.18 percent to close at USD 450.12 on September 16 due to poor performance of new smartphone products in the Chinese mainland.
It for the first time held a press conference for the release of new smartphone products, namely iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, in the Chinese market in Beijing on September 11, however, except a video watched several hours ago, the Chinese media saw top executives of neither it nor major Chinese telecom operators. The interview link was omitted, too. And about three hours later, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE: CHU, SEHK: 0762 and SEHK 600050), a domestic archrival of China Mobile Ltd. (SEHK: 0941 and NYSE: CHL), triggered the presale of contractual iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C and said in the evening yesterday that the presales volume had exceeded 100,000 units in total, down about 50 percent from that seized by iPhone 5 in two days starting from the the release last year.
In the meantime, China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA and SEHK: 0728), the biggest fixed-line operator in the market, slashed subsidies for iPhone 5S sharply. And for instance, provided that a consumer buys an iPhone 5S from it and signs a package agreement of CNY 289 per month, he or she will gain subsidies of CNY 2,890, down 15 percent from that provided for iPhone 5.
Hurt by those, Apple saw share price drop 3.18 percent to USD 450.12 yesterday, with market value falling by USD 13.4 billion. It closed at USD 506.17 on September 9 and that is to say it witnessed share price fall over USD 56.05, or 11.07 percent, in five trading days, with market value dropping by about USD 51 billion in total. Actually, it had been the ninth trading day for it to suffer a share price fall of more than three percent since the start of this year.
In line with industry observers, it is expected to lose more share in the Chinese market. One pointed out that its new products were still lack in innovation. In addition, it failed to launch long-awaited iWatch or iTV. It benefited much from the market, but judging from the press conference, it attached little importance there as usual. For instance, consumers there preferred to smartphones with a big screen. However, it continued a relatively small-screen strategy. Besides, it still failed to enter into a partnership with China Mobile. Notably, it still continued a high-price strategy there.
