Since long it has been reported that Apple is making every efforts to increase the sales of its iPhones as it has been facing a decline in recent times. Now efforts are being made by the Cupertino based company to make the iPhones more affordable for the Chinese customers. Apple is currently working with the Chinese mobile-payments network Alipay to offer up to two years of interest free financing.
The companies have already informed the customers about the new borrowing option and requires a minimum purchase of 4,000 yuan so as to qualify for the borrow. This would make it easy for more users to be able to get their hands on the premium handsets by the company in an easy way including the XR which is the most affordable option in the new line up of Apple at 6,499 yuan.
In recent times, the sales growth of the Cupertino based company in China has been a cause of concern to the investors of Apple. CEO Tim Cook had in January, 2019 warned of economic pressures in the region and slowing of iPhone sales. During the first quarter 2019 earnings, Apple had reported a drop of nearly $5 billion in revenue from China compared to the previous year with $13.17 billion during the December quarter. Cook, while talking to a leading daily said, “If you look at our results, our shortfall is over 100 percent from iPhone and it’s primarily in greater China”.
The CEO in the interview had also spoken about adding payments to dull the high price tags. Now the giant’s decision to work with Alipay is an interesting news, as its own digital wallet service, Apple Pay failed to gain much market share in the region. On the other hand Alipay has more than 700 million active users in the region. Huabei, is the Alipay service that will finance the purchases of Apple and acts like a virtual credit card that Apple would likely pay for up front a small percentage of a product’s price.
Photo Credits: Fortone
