Apple started offering installment payment plans in its China web shop, letting buyers pay for iPhones, iPads and Macbooks over the course of 2 years, Bloomberg reported.
The deal is valid for owners of China Merchants Bank credit cards and for purchases ranging from 300 yuan ($48) to 30,000 yuan ($4,800). Buyers can split payments into three, six, 12, 18 or 24 installments, with additional fees being applied for the last two options.
With this move, Apple hopes to tap into the mid-range consumer market in China, where an iPhone -- which costs 5,288 yuan ($850) -- is still out of the price range of the average customer. An urban worker in China has an average monthly pay of about 3,585 yuan ($577), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
IDC now places Apple sixth in China's smartphone market (down from fourth place in the quarter before that), behind Samsung, Coolpad, Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei.