Apple Adds Credit Options for Chinese Buyers

[MacRumors]

Apple today added installment payment plans to its online store in China, giving Chinese buyers the option to purchase iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks via credit.

Consumers can choose to pay in installments on merchandise that costs between 300 yuan ($48) and 30,000 yuan ($4,800), through a plan from China Merchants Bank Co.

As Bloomberg notes, the credit option puts expensive devices like the iPad and the iPhone into the reach of Chinese workers, who often cannot afford to purchase Apple's devices.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, is trying to make its products more affordable in China after being surpassed by local suppliers such as ZTE Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd. in the smartphone market. The iPhone 5, released in China last month, is priced at 5,288 yuan on Apple's local site, equal to about six weeks' pay for the average urban worker.

"There is an enormous mid-range consumer market that they are not tapping into," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting Ltd., a Beijing-based market research firm. "They're trying to figure out how to make products more accessible to that market segment. This is a good step in that direction."

In the Foxconn factories where Apple's mobile devices are assembled, junior level workers make approximately 1,800 yuan per month, which means the iPad and the iPhone are nearly unattainable without an installment option

Apple is currently offering payment plans over three, six, 12, 18, and 24 months. A promotion that lasts through January 23 makes payment plans lasting a year or less interest free. Payment plans with 18 installments incur a fee of 6.5 percent of the selling price, and 24 installment plans have a fee of 8.5 percent.

Article Link: Apple Adds Credit Options for Chinese Buyers

[macingman]

Should make it accessible for many more Chinese people which may not have savings but may include it in their regular wage.

[coolspot18]

Originally Posted by macingman

Should make it accessible for many more Chinese people which may not have savings but may include it in their regular wage.

The Chinese save more than the average American, in fact they have one of the highest rates of savings in the world.

But obviously the iPhone is an expensive purchase for even the middle class still.

Originally Posted by iMikeT

How about every employer in the world paying its employees a living wage and then some so people don't have to resort to payment plans? Seriously, how much are some of these payment plans in relation to a Chinese person's monthly income, 20%? 50%?

Cost of living in China is still lower than in Europe of the United States. The iPhone is an import and will remain expensive... just like how European imports are expensive in North America or vice versa.

China has a middle class of ~300,000,000 people ... and probably a couple million super rich. The size of the luxury market is growing like crazy in China, so Apple is just trying to get a piece of it.

[ryuok]

Originally Posted by coolspot18

China has a middle class of ~300,000,000 people ... and probably a couple million super rich. The size of the luxury market is growing like crazy in China, so Apple is just trying to get a piece of it.

Your number is meaningless. How do you define middle class? I think mostly China's self-defined "middle class" is in fact poorer than the working class of the US. A person who makes US$500 a month would be considered middle-class in China, i.e. poor people by western standard.

In Hong Kong, a person has to own a property valued at US$1 million and an income of US $5000 to be an entry-level middle class. A typical middle-class person in Hong Kong owns a US$3 million property, a luxury car valued at US$200,000 (incl. 115% tax) and a monthly income of US$20,000.

[coolspot18]

Originally Posted by ryuok

A typical middle-class person in Hong Kong owns a US$3 million property, a luxury car valued at US$200,000 (incl. 115% tax) and a monthly income of US$20,000.

Are you serious? I don't know where you got your numbers from, but the middle class in Hong Kong only makes 10,000HKD - 25,000HKD a month (household).

Only 3% of Hong Kong's household makes more than 100,000HKD... or 12500.00USD a month...

http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/f...population.pdf

[ArtOfWarfare]

This should help Apple make more sales of all their hardware, Macs included, not just iOS devices, correct?

Sounds like a win for developers of either (or both) platforms to me

[charlituna]

No, no, no. Apple is supposed to make a cheap phone for them. They must. John Sculley said so

[Davmeister]

Wow. £9 a day...I feel bad :S (what they're earning I mean)

[mrsir2009]

Now the working class Chinese can go crazy on the high puchase too

[iMikeT]

How about every employer in the world paying its employees a living wage and then some so people don't have to resort to payment plans? Seriously, how much are some of these payment plans in relation to a Chinese person's monthly income, 20%? 50%?

[velocityg4]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

How about every employer in the world paying its employees a living wage and then some so people don't have to resort to payment plans? Seriously, how much are some of these payment plans in relation to a Chinese person's monthly income, 20%? 50%?

You can help by not purchasing products from these companies. Then spend more for products from competitors that pay their employees better.

[MrDc2]

I would hate to live in China. That is freaking ridiculous. I don't care if they're factory workers or service people; they should earn a livable wage. What they make is just nonsense. I am an American though and I have no business telling the Chinese what to do or how to run their country.

----------

Originally Posted by iMikeT

How about every employer in the world paying its employees a living wage and then some so people don't have to resort to payment plans? Seriously, how much are some of these payment plans in relation to a Chinese person's monthly income, 20%? 50%?

Corporate greed will never end. I don't care if they operate in a socialist, community or capitalist country... it will always exist.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

How about every employer in the world paying its employees a living wage and then some so people don't have to resort to payment plans? Seriously, how much are some of these payment plans in relation to a Chinese person's monthly income, 20%? 50%?

How about you stop acting like having a smart phone is a right rather than a privilege

----------

Originally Posted by MrDc2

I would hate to live in China. That is freaking ridiculous. I don't care if they're factory workers or service people; they should earn a livable wage.

Who says they don't. Just because they can't spend $1000 at the drop of a hat doesn't equal them being immorally underpaid etc

[village master]

Originally Posted by Davmeister

Wow. £9 a day...I feel bad :S (what they're earning I mean)

请问你收入多少？What is your income?（我是一位来自中国的毕业大学生I am a graduate students from China）

[dontwalkhand]

So now we are teaching the Chinese the true American way, mounds of credit card debt is the answer to attaining products you can't afford!

[Apple2]

Originally Posted by village master

请问你收入多少？What is your income?（我是一位来自中国的毕业大学生I am a graduate students from China）

I make about $100,000 a year. The US middle class is from about 55-125 thousand yearly.

[Sardonick007]

Next time you hear somebody say China is 3rd world and full of poor people, slap them with an 800 iphone and show them how much of the U.S. China actually owns. (let alone Dubai) Soon we're going to be eating rice and making faux products to keep up with the world economy.

[Sardonick007]

All the news about the poor workers is hilarious. First off, they're not so poor, and second, nobody held a gun to their head and said "don't amount to anything but a factory worker". Same goes for all the blue collar whiners in the states hiding behind the vale of union malarkey. Get an education, get a better job and quit blaming those that have skills or positions for your BS. If people in China can afford an iPhone, then by all means they should be able to get one without people pitching a fit. Besides, they own most of what you're sitting on, computing on, walking in, wearing and eating (if you're unlucky enough to eat chickedy china).

[macingman]

Originally Posted by Sardonick007

Next time you hear somebody say China is 3rd world and full of poor people, slap them with an 800 iphone and show them how much of the U.S. China actually owns. (let alone Dubai) Soon we're going to be eating rice and making faux products to keep up with the world economy.

Just because the government is rich and there is a growing upper class doesn't mean that people there are not dirt poor.

When up visit china it is apparent that there is a huge disparity in demographics.

[lukecro]

Apple should give all of its Foxcon/factory workers free iPhones and/or iPads... Seems a bit cruel that they have to spend 50 hours/week building iDevices that they never actually get to use and will never be able to afford. Given Apple's high profit margins on these devices, it wouldn't really cost them that much to give their low-paid employees a free last-generation iPod touch or something every once in a while. So they can own an example of what they're making by the millions. (Or, historically, see Ford's old idea that anyone working at a Ford car factory should be paid enough that they can afford to buy a Ford.)

[raptorstv]

This is a smart move on Apple's side... Instead of releasing the cheaper version of iphone

[Amacfa]

Just what china needs: credit.

[Solomani]

Originally Posted by Amacfa

Just what china needs: credit.

Yes. It's about time that the Chinese learn the American Way of .... fiscal irresponsibility and debt enslavement.

With their population of 8 trillion people, China's national debt should surpass the USA by 2018.

[Plutonius]

Finally, someone is crediting the Chinese .

[JAT]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

In the Foxconn factories where Apple's mobile devices are assembled, junior level workers make approximately 1,800 yuan per month, which means the iPad and the iPhone are nearly unattainable without an installment option

Um, the only difference between saving the right amount until you have the total to purchase, and buying on credit is that the credit costs more. So "unattainable" applies to both.