Apple’s rivals in China pounce on the new iPhones

Huawei and Xiaomi take pot-shots at the iPhone XS and XR

Apple

Karen Chiu

Published: 7:35pm, 13 Sep 2018

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This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Apple showed off three new phones on Wednesday -- and in China, everyone from potential customers to the country’s smartphone giants have something to say.

Netizens are mostly complaining about the toll it’s going to take on their wallet.

The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max will sell in China at the starting prices of around US$948, US$1270, and US$1400 respectively -- around US$200 to US$300 more expensive than in the US. It doesn’t help that the XS Max is going to be Apple’s most pricey iPhone to date.

A table on Chinese social media comparing the prices of various new iPhone models in the US versus China. (Picture: D小姐的dc日记/Weibo)

“The pricing is getting more and more presumptuous,” says the top-voted comment under a new Weibo post from Apple’s managing director in China.

“I spent my two kidneys on the iPhone 7 and 8 already,” writes one Weibo user with a darker sense of humor. (In a well-known and pretty sad case in 2012, a Chinese teen reportedly sold his kidney in the black market for around US$3500 to buy an iPad.)

“The lowest price [of the iPhone] is enough to buy two Android flagships. Apple hasn’t made much of a breakthrough in the post-Jobs era. The only breakthrough is the price,” says another person.

A meme on Weibo reads: Only the plebs stayed up to watch the launch. The rich ones wake up in the morning and buy right away. (Picture: 我本来就很可爱/Weibo)

The new iPhones adopt most of the same design cues as the previous iPhone, the iPhone X, including the notch. The lack of any major surprises seem to sit well with rivals.

Shortly after the iPhone launch, Huawei tweeted what looks like a stab at Apple…

(“Real hero of the year?” Maybe it’s not a stab at Apple, but at the Avengers instead.)

Huawei, which beat Apple to become the world’s second biggest smartphone seller last quarter, is expected to unveil its next flagship -- the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro -- a couple of weeks from now. Huawei executive Richard Yu also wrote on Weibo, “We’re in solid shape.”

Meanwhile just hours after Apple revealed that the iPhone XS and XS Max will come in gold, Xiaomi teased that its upcoming smartphone -- expected to be a budget version of its flagship Mi 8 -- will also be gold-hued.

Xiaomi has never been one for subtlety. And just in case you missed the comparison, Xiaomi put an iPhone in their poster too.

“Hello, gold,” says Xiaomi’s new poster. (Picture: Xiaomi via Weibo)

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