On Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall, several leading phone-makers have discounted products designed for the fourth generation of mobile network technology following the first domestic sales of smartphones made for the fifth.

In a statement sent to Sixth Tone on Thursday, Tmall said popular domestic brands like Huawei and Xiaomi slashed prices for so-called 4G phones by 100 yuan to 500 yuan ($14 to $71) on Tuesday in a bid to increase sales. Meanwhile, Oppo — another Chinese phone manufacturer — lowered the price of one of its models by 1,000 yuan even before the 5G phones hit the market, Tmall said.

The discounts came after China’s first public sales of 5G phones earlier this week by telecom giant ZTE. The company’s Axon 10 Pro 5G smartphone can currently be purchased for as little as 4,999 yuan, though Tmall says it expects 5G phones to be priced at 3,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan by March 2020.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued 5G commercial licenses to four state-owned telecom companies in early June. The following month, the CEO of e-commerce platform Suning.com revealed that three other 5G phone models — from the manufacturers Huawei, Samsung, and Vivo — are set to go on sale in late August. (Image: IC)