When the standard iPhone 17 is priced starting at 5,999 yuan and equipped with the A19 chip and a 120Hz high refresh rate screen, when Apple’s official flagship store joins Douyin Mall, and when “adding value without increasing price” becomes a frequently used term in media evaluations, this tech giant once known for its premium positioning is using a typical “involution strategy” to tackle survival challenges in the Chinese market. The latest data shows that pre-orders for the standard iPhone 17 have increased eightfold compared to the previous generation, but the capital markets have given a cool response — Apple’s “recommendation consistency” index has dropped to its lowest level since early 2020, at 3.9, with only 55% of analysts maintaining a “buy” rating. This proactively initiated “involution battle” is an inevitable choice under the pressure of declining market share in China.
Product Side: From “Squeezing Out Drops” to “Exploding Drops” Compromise
Apple’s product strategy shift is vividly reflected in the iPhone 17 series. The standard version, previously criticized for its “precise pricing,” has now achieved a key configuration leap: not only equipped with screens and a 48MP dual-camera system identical to the Pro version, but also for the first time introducing 120Hz high refresh rate technology to the base model. Storage specifications have been directly canceled for the 128GB version, with a starting point of 256GB still maintaining the original price. This “adding value without increasing price” move stands in stark contrast to the deliberate neutering of core features in the iPhone 14 and 15 series.
The harsh market reality is forcing Apple to lower its stance. Canalys data shows that Apple’s shipments in China plummeted by 17% to 42.9 million units in 2024, while Huawei’s grew by 37% to 46 million units, achieving its first-ever overtaking of Apple. Entering 2025, the pressure intensifies: in the second quarter, Apple’s shipments in China decreased by 6.7% year-on-year, and the decline expanded to 6% in the first eight weeks of the third quarter. Apple’s domestic market share has fallen from its peak of 24% to 15%, ranking fifth behind Huawei, vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi. More Fatal is the weakening of the high-end market’s moat, with the share of the $600+ price segment shrinking from 75% in 2022 to 54% in 2024, while the proportion of domestic brands has risen to 46%.
Channels and Pricing: “Bending Over to Pick Up Coins” with National Subsidies
To win users, Apple has gone even further in the “involution” of channels and pricing. During the 618 period, Apple launched national subsidies through its Tmall flagship store, with the addition of platform coupons, bringing the lowest price of the iPhone 16 Pro down to 5,299 yuan, directly boosting its market share to 43%. After tasting the sweet fruit, the iPhone 17 series further targeted positions precisely: the 256GB version is priced at 5,999 yuan in mainland China, perfectly falling within the scope of the national subsidy, while the same model in Hong Kong is priced at about 6,200 yuan, breaking Apple’s global unified pricing practice.
The breakthrough in channel expansion further shows its determination. A week before the September launch of the iPhone 17, Apple suddenly announced its entry into Douyin Mall, marking the first time it opened an official flagship store on a new online channel after Tmall. It’s worth noting that Apple had been extremely cautious in selecting channels before, with even JD.com, which has a significant advantage in the digital category, only obtaining authorized qualifications. Douyin’s 3C category had not been a strength, with the cumulative sales of the iPhone 16 Pro Max in Apple’s self-operated store reaching less than 50,000 units, still not even a fraction of JD.com’s figures. This “downward adaptation” has been interpreted by the industry as a mindset shift from “looking up at the moon” to “bending over to pick up coins.”
Cost Battle: The Life-or-Death Struggle of Self-Developed Baseband
In the supply chain invisible to users, Apple’s “involution” has extended to the substitution of core technologies. The newly launched iPhone Air is equipped with Apple’s self-developed C1X baseband chip and N1 Wi-Fi chip, becoming a key test subject for Apple to break its reliance on Qualcomm. Under the previous agreement, Apple had to pay a 5% patent fee on the selling price for each phone equipped with a Qualcomm baseband chip. If the self-developed chips can be mass-produced, it will significantly reduce cost pressure.
But behind this cost war lies deeper concerns. To respond to the U.S. “manufacturing Recirculation” requirements, Apple announced an investment of 600 billion U.S. dollars in factories in the U.S. over the next four years, combined with the uncertainty of production capacity scaling up in India, cost pressure continues to rise. Meanwhile, the lag in the AI field has led to questions about its lack of innovation: while giants like Google and Microsoft are heavily investing in large models, internal strategic disagreements at Apple have caused turmoil in its AI team, with the head of the foundational model Pang Ruoming joining Meta, missing the technological window period.
“Apple’s involution is a microcosm of China’s market competition ecosystem,” industry analyst Zhang Jingwei pointed out. When domestic manufacturers like Huawei and Xiaomi continue to break through in imaging, fast charging, and AI, and with the restructuring of national subsidy policies reshaping the pricing system, Apple’s high-end premium logic is becoming unsustainable. From pre-sale data, the strategy of cutting prices to increase volume has shown short-term effectiveness, but whether it can maintain its share in the long term still depends on whether it can find a new balance between AI innovation and cost control. This “involution battle” may have just begun.
