(Yicai) Sept. 16 -- Some Chinese e-commerce platforms have been offering discounts of up to CNY900 (USD126) to customers pre-ordering the iPhone 17 less than a week after it launched, despite a growth in demand compared with the previous series.

Pinduoduo is pre-selling the 256 gigabyte iPhone 17 for CNY5,099 (USD715), compared with CNY5,999 (USD840) on Apple's official website. In addition, the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro Max is available at CNY9,099 (USD1,280) on Pinduoduo, versus CNY9,999 (USD1,405) on Apple.Com.Cn.

However, Pinduoduo will provide a limited number of coupons for iPhone 17 phones, which buyers can only obtain on a first-come, first-served basis at a specific time designated by the platform.

JD.Com has also offered some subsidies for the new iPhone 17 through trade-in programs on its website, but it has not made any direct discounts yet.

Thanks to significant upgrades, Apple received more pre-orders for the iPhone 17 on Chinese e-commerce platforms than for the iPhone 16 series a year earlier.

On the first day of the iPhone 17 presales, the number of orders on Alibaba's Tmall online marketplace nearly tripled compared with the previous series during its initial presale period.

However, the rebound in demand for the iPhone 17 might be short-lived. As the luxury attribute of Apple phones weakens each year, the room for scalpers to raise prices from the official selling price set by the US tech giant has narrowed.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev