Apple standout winner in China’s luxury slowdown

Chinese corporates and wealthy consumers are taking gift-giving down a notch this Lunar New Year, opting for iPhones instead of Birkin bags or Louis Vuitton wallets.

The annual holiday, which falls on February 19-20 this year, is a time of gift exchange between family, colleagues and business contacts.

“The iPhone 6 has replaced luxury items as a key gift this Chinese New Year,” Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group told CNBC. “Corporates, for example, used to buy luxury products to give their high performing employees, now they are giving iPhones because they more reasonably priced and still considered premium enough,” he said.