Major Australian retailer slashes over AU$300 off iPhone Xs 512 GB models

In a never before seen discount in Australia on a current flagship Apple iPhone, top consumer electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi is offering a limited time discount of AU$320 off the 512 GB models of the iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max. Normally, the regular 5.8-inch iPhone Xs 512 GB model retails for an eyewatering AU$2,199 (US$1,558) and can now be had for the (still eyewatering), but more reasonable price of AU$1,879. The 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max 512 GB is typically priced at a sky-high AU$2,369 (US$1,679), it is currently on sale for AU$2,049 (US$1,452).

As a close watcher of Apple product prices in Australia over the years, I can report that at best, customers are offered 10 percent of Apple products in sale events. However, this sort of discount has never been applicable to Apple’s iPhone line and certainly never on the current top-of-the-line flagship model. The discount that has been applied here works out to about 13.5 percent, which is quite unheard of and underscores that Apple has been struggling to shift iPhone Xs inventory at the nose-bleed end of the range. It has also been applied months before the launch of the next-gen iPhone.

iPhone revenue dropped by a precipitous 15 percent in its most recently reported quarter and was in line with a rare earnings warning issued to investors by Apple head of its December quarterly earnings report. The company’s stock fell after it announced that it was no longer going to break out sales numbers for its iPhone, iPad or MacBook lines, which investors saw as an indication Apple has reached “peak iPhone.”

At the time of its holiday quarter report, Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated that discounting its iPhone line was in the pipeline – given the thin margins Apple leaves its resellers, the level of discount currently being offered by JB Hi-Fi couldn’t have been achieved without Apple underwriting it.