(Yicai) Oct. 24 -- Vendors on leading Chinese e-commerce platforms are discounting some Apple iPhone 15 models by more than CNY1,000 (USD137) compared with their official channel pricing in the days leading up to Double 11, China’s biggest online shopping event.

On Pinduoduo, one store is offering the iPhone 15 Pro with 1 terabyte of storage at CNY11,298 (USD1,544), which is CNY1,701 lower than the official price, and other models in the series are on offer for CNY601 to CNY1,601 (USD82 to USD219) less. Prices of the handsets have also been dropped by merchants on JD.Com and Taobao.

Netizens attributed the discounts to the upcoming Double 11 shopping festival, while others said it is the result of soft sales of Apple's current flagship iPhones in the local market.

In the 17 days after launching in China, iPhone 15 sales were 4.5 percent lower than for the same period of the iPhone 14 a year earlier, according to data from market researcher Counterpoint. With the iPhone 14 Plus model also hitting the Chinese market later than the series’ debut, the adjusted decline in sales is more than 10 percent.

The online discounters are all third-party merchants that likely stocked up on too many devices, a salesperson at an Apple authorized store told Yicai. And the possibility that some defective products are being repackaged and resold cannot be ruled out either, the person said.

Based on previous experience, Apple is unlikely to cut the prices of its iPhone 15 until the Spring Festival in China around January to February next year or in the middle of 2024, they added.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook arrived in Chengdu on Oct. 16 for his second visit to China this year. During his four-day stay in the country, he also went to Yaan, Jiashan, and Beijing, a trip experts regarded as an effort to boost sales of the iPhone 15.

The Mate 60 smartphone, released by Huawei Technologies on Sept. 25, is considered a strong rival to the iPhone 15. The Shenzhen-based firm has raised its second-half shipment plan for the Mate 60 Pro by 20 percent to between 5.5 and 6 million units thanks to hot sales, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, a leading information technology sector analyst.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev