5 things Apple needs to do to make the next iPhone a hit in China

Apple has been having a rough year so far in China. It posted a record-breakingly bad quarter earlier this year, and then posted another one late last month. Its China market share has dropped. Chinese teens are saying they don’t want to pay Apple prices for a smartphone. Things have gotten so bad that even Huawei’s often-reclusive founder has come out of the shadows just to throw shade Apple’s way.

Part of the downturn is simply the iPhone 6s reaching the end of its cycle, of course. Sales always drop when a new model is just around the corner. But Apple hasn’t seen this kind of downturn in China since, well, ever. So it’s not just that.

But Apple’s not out of the game in China. Far from it. Here’s what Apple needs to do to turn things around for the iPhone in China:

1. New body design for the iPhone 7

Part of the appeal of Apple’s products in China has been their high cost – they’re a conspicuous luxury item, but still priced low enough that most white-collar workers can afford one if they want to. But part of the fun of buying a luxury item is showing it off. That hurts Apple in “off” years when it releases models like the 6s, which looks exactly like the iPhone 6. For consumers who want an iPhone partially to show it off, there’s little appeal to a phone like the iPhone 6s. What’s the point of buying the latest and greatest iPhone if everyone who looks at it thinks you just bought a year-old iPhone 6?

This one should be a slam-dunk for Apple, as virtually every report suggests that the iPhone 7 – which Apple is expected to unveil early next month – will feature a different body design. Nobody’s expecting major changes, but as long as it looks different from previous generations, that’ll help attract some of China’s more image-conscious Apple fans back into the fold. Still, we’ll have to see just how different the thing looks – 1mm of extra thinness isn’t going to be enough to make the phone show-offable on the subway.

2. More storage space

Right now, Apple is charging US$800 for a phone with 16 GB of storage space. That is absolutely absurd in and of itself, but it’s doubly stupid in China, where the most popular app can be a bit of a storage hog. True, you can manage storage usage and clear cached media files from within the WeChat app, but the app still has a tendency to bloat if you’re not paying too much attention. And on a 16 GB phone where you may also be trying to store high-res videos and photos, that leads to the phone getting very full very fast.

Again, it looks like Apple will be on top of this with the iPhone 7, as it’s reported that Apple will finally ditch 16 GB storage and make 32 GB the new minimum storage option. 32 GB is still pretty small given modern media habits and given how absurdly cheap storage is these days, but hey, it’s better than no change at all.

Even the cheap iPhone isn’t really that cheap.

3. More available and cheaper cheap phones

Apple’s iPhone SE, the lower-cost alternative to its flagship iPhone line, has actually been something of a hit in China, but Apple has had trouble keeping the things in stock. Needless to say, that needs to be fixed. A further price drop wouldn’t hurt, either – the 16 GB iPhone SE still costs nearly US$500 in China. Local competitors like Huawei and Apple – both of whom have passed Apple in terms of China market share – offer high-quality phones for cheaper than that. People will probably always be willing to pay a bit more for the Apple brand, but in a market where teens expect to buy a decent smartphone for US$150, Apple may want to consider making its low-end model even lower-end.

4. Something sexy

A new external design will help the iPhone 7 stand out, but it could really use a unique feature or two to help set it further apart from the competition – something for China’s web users to talk about after the initial hype of the announcement event dies down.

It’s not clear whether or not the new iPhone will have this. It’s widely reported that Apple is going to ditch the headphone jack, which isn’t likely to go over well in China, but if that makes the phone waterproof (as some rumors suggest), that could be a good thing. The removal of the home-button and the addition of a dual-lens camera, both also widely expected, could help, but neither has much of a “wow” factor. Still, it’s Apple – you never know quite what the company could have up its sleeve.

5. Don’t name it the iPhone 6se

Some rumors have suggested that because the next iPhone will be quite similar to the 6s, Apple is planning to call it the iPhone 6se. This, I suspect, would not play well in China, as it merely reinforces the idea that this isn’t really a new phone, just another offshoot of the boring old iPhone 6.