Despite Apple's crystal clear endeavor to amplify its presence in China, the higher Chinese pricetags on the new iPhone 7 may further drag down sales, as Chinese smartphone brands are offering equally powerful gadgets at much lower prices.
Apple's strategy to please Chinese consumers with a rose gold iPhone is very likely to succeed, as a pre-order frenzy has already occurred.
Official second-hand iPhones, refurbished by Foxconn and selling for between 499 yuan and 2,099 yuan ($80 to $338), will effectively erode China's lower-priced smartphones market, which is primarily dominated by Android handsets.
The market size of iPhone 6 accessories in China has greatly outstripped the previous models due to the unprecedented popularity of Apple's latest smartphones in the world's largest populated market.
A Chinese netizen posted pictures and video of the suspected next-generation iPhone on Sina Weibo on Saturday, showing off the features of the iOS 8 system, health app as well as the smooth screen unlocked through Touch ID.
iPhone 5 sales in China hit 2 million over the first weekend, but the glamorous result is also accompanied with huge unprecedented trade-in from retailers and price hike from telecommunication carriers.
Scalpers are reselling iPhone 5 up to US$1,550 per set due to scarce supply in the city.
Ongoing territory disputes between China and Japan seem "solved" by the widely criticized Apple Maps adopted in iPhone 5, which reveals two sets of the islands appearing next to each other--one under Japan and one under China.
Apple has raised its unlocked iPhone 5 retail prices--by about 10 percent over the previous generation--in Hong Kong, the duty-free harbor in which the company's products were previously priced lowest in the world.
Whether the new Apple smartphone can enter the Chinese market remains a question as knock-off phonemaker says it had patented the design--before the official launch on Thursday--which has proven to be identical with the real model.