Why does the 618 shopping festival battle start with mobile phone price cuts?

This year's 618 shopping festival kicked off with a fierce mobile phone price war. Recently, Apple suddenly cut prices, with the entire iPhone 17 Pro series seeing a reduction of 1,000 yuan. Huawei officially announced that the Mate X6 could enjoy a maximum discount of 3,000 yuan, and Xiaomi declared that the price of the 15 Ultra was directly reduced by 1,500 yuan.

In addition to direct price cuts by mobile phone brands, e - commerce platforms have also actively participated. After superimposing national subsidies and large - scale promotional discounts, consumers can purchase mobile phones at up to 50% off. Why did the 618 battle start with mobile phones?

Triple Superposition of Subsidies

The iPhone 17 Pro became a hot - selling product after the price cut of 1,000 yuan. Tmall data shows that just three days after the launch, the search volume related to "iPhone" on Taobao and Tmall soared seven times compared with normal days. The iPhone 17 Pro series topped the sales list in the 6,000 - 10,000 - yuan mobile phone price range, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max quickly became the best - selling model. The customer service of Apple's Tmall official flagship store said that the 618 promotion runs from May 15th to June 21st.

During this 618 promotion, the price of the 256GB version of the Apple iPhone 17 Pro on Apple's Tmall official flagship store dropped to 7,999 yuan, a decrease of about 8.06% from the high point in the past 30 days.

As of May 19th, according to the price trend chart data on the Dewu App, the market transaction price of the 256GB version of the Apple iPhone 17 Pro has been on a downward trend in the past 30 days, fluctuating between 8,400 yuan and 8,700 yuan.

Dewu data shows that the market transaction price of the 256GB version of the iPhone 17 Pro Max has been basically stable in the range of about 9,400 - 9,700 yuan in the past 30 days. On the 19th, Zhongxin Jingwei saw on Apple's Tmall official flagship store that the price of this model has now dropped to 8,999 yuan.

According to the price trend chart on the Dewu App, after May 20th, many Android flagship models have seen significant price cuts. Among them, the 12GB + 256GB version of the REDMI K90 Pro Max had a price cut of 801 yuan, a decrease of about 20.03%; the 12GB + 256GB version of the Xiaomi 17 had a price cut of 878 yuan, a decrease of about 19.52%. In terms of high - end flagships, the 12GB + 128GB version of the Huawei Mate X7 had a price cut of 1,091 yuan, a decrease of about 8.39%; the 12GB + 256GB version of the OPPO Find X9 Pro had a price cut of 869 yuan, a decrease of about 16.40%; the 12GB + 512GB version of the vivo X300 Ultra had a price cut of 818 yuan, a decrease of about 0.91%.

In addition to the active price concessions by brand merchants, during the 618 period, each platform deeply combined national subsidies with large - scale promotions.

Douyin e - commerce has made a key investment of tens of billions of consumption vouchers this year, which will be distributed in different stages. Consumers can save up to 1,000 yuan per coupon. Durable consumer goods such as mobile phones, digital products, and home appliances can be purchased at up to 50% off after the "platform subsidy", "national subsidy", and "store subsidy".

On May 20th, Zhongxin Jingwei saw in the JD National Subsidy Doubling Zone that after the discount, the HUAWEI Pura 90 was shown as follows: the single - item price was 5,999 yuan, with a maximum discount of 1,300 yuan, a maximum in - machine discount of 1,200 yuan, and a national subsidy of 500 yuan. The estimated price after the national subsidy was 2,999 yuan.

According to the preferential policy announced by Apple's Tmall official flagship store, after the store discount for the iPhone 17 Pro series, a 300 - yuan surprise coupon can be superimposed, and 12 - month interest - free payment can be enjoyed.

Image source: Tmall

Brand Inventory Clearance is the Main Reason

Liu Yushi, the research director of market research institution CINNO Research, told Zhongxin Jingwei that the price cuts during the 618 are the result of short - term market games under the interweaving of multiple factors. Enterprises cooperate with e - commerce platforms to carry out promotions, combined with national subsidies as a guarantee and e - commerce platforms competing for sales volume to boost performance. The multiple factors have strongly offset the cost increase, resulting in a temporary downward price trend.

In the view of industry insiders, one of the main reasons why mobile phones started the "price war" on e - commerce platforms during this year's 618 is brand - concentrated inventory clearance. Li Mingtao, an expert from the Expert Committee of the National E - commerce Demonstration City, told Zhongxin Jingwei that since the beginning of this year, affected by factors such as the price increase of memory chips, most mobile phone manufacturers have adopted the method of stockpiling production to reduce production costs, but this has also caused a large backlog of inventory, and there is an urgent need to digest the inventory as soon as possible.

Li Mingtao mentioned that mobile phone products have a relatively high unit price and high price elasticity. E - commerce platforms will also focus on increasing the promotion and subsidy efforts for mobile phone products to increase GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume). Coupled with the full implementation of the second - batch national subsidy policy in 2026, mobile phones have become the "first battlefield" of the 618.

Ma Jihua, a senior analyst in the Internet industry, also told Zhongxin Jingwei that the increase in memory prices will lead to an increase in the overall cost of mobile phones, but the proportion in the whole machine is not large. For high - end mobile phones, the profit margin is relatively high, and there is still profit space even after price cuts. At the same time, mobile phone categories have always been an important part of e - commerce promotions. Coupled with the demand for inventory clearance, the popularity of mobile phones during this year's 618 has further increased.

Zhang Yi, the CEO of iiMedia Research, told Zhongxin Jingwei that according to iiMedia's survey, the current industry has a serious backlog of inventory, and the market consumption demand is weak. Major brands prefer to cut prices to clear inventory, recover funds, and actively offer price concessions to boost sales volume to hedge against operating pressure.

In addition, seizing the traffic entrance by cutting prices first has also become an important consideration for each brand to compete for the first - mover advantage in this year's 618. Ma Jihua pointed out that cost is the main consideration for mobile phone pricing, but the decisive factor is competition.

"If a brand cuts prices, other brands have to fight back passively, otherwise they may be eliminated. At this time, what is being compared is the cost - control ability and financial strength. On the other hand, because mobile phones are becoming more and more expensive, users' purchasing desire is suppressed. At this time, price cuts may capture the market, which is a good opportunity to increase market share." Ma Jihua said.

Will this round of price cuts end after the 618?

Liu Yushi mentioned that due to the continuous structural cost problems behind mobile phones, it is difficult for this downward price trend to become normal. The increase in memory prices is an upward cost trend throughout the industry cycle. The continuous price increase of upstream raw materials such as memory and core components has directly pushed up the hardware cost of mobile phones, which is difficult to reverse completely in the short term.

Zhang Yi also believes that from the supply - chain level, the prices of core components such as memory and flash memory are continuously rising, and a large amount of storage production capacity is tilted towards the AI field. The production cost of mobile phone hardware has already increased, and there is an obvious basis for price increases in the long - term industry. The subsequent pricing of new mobile phones is on the rise. On the contrary, in this year's 618 market situation, the large - scale price concessions of terminal mobile phones are short - term market behaviors.

He said that currently, with the support of large - scale platform subsidies and the digital trade - in policy, the actual purchase price has been further reduced, creating a contrast between the rising upstream costs and the falling terminal selling prices. Generally speaking, this round of low prices is only a temporary window period. After the inventory is cleared, the mobile phone market price will gradually return to the cost trend.

The views in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhongxin Jingwei" (ID: jwview). Author: Xie Jingwen, Zheng Yijia. Editor: Li Xiaoxuan. Responsible editors: Chang Tao, Luo Kun. Republished by 36Kr with permission.