In India, you pay Rs 1,34,900 or roughly $1,625 for the iPhone 15 Professional 128GB variant. Within the US, not solely can you purchase the identical iPhone 15 Professional for that a lot cash, but in addition a high of the road Apple Watch Extremely 2, and nonetheless save sufficient cash to purchase a couple of equipment for each
After a variety of anticipation and a slew of rumours round its attainable options and pricing, Apple has lastly launched its much-awaited iPhone 15 collection.
What was stunning was that versus what individuals had anticipated, Apple didn’t improve the worth of its units this time round for its international customers. Nevertheless, as all the time, Indian clients are being handled otherwise.
Apple’s skewed Indian pricing
Whereas the brand new iPhone 15 collection, particularly the iPhone 15 Professional and the iPhone 15 Professional Max include a ton of latest options and are literally fairly stable premium smartphones, it’s exhausting to make sense of the machine’s pricing in India.
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There’s no different means of claiming it however Apple’s pricing technique for the iPhone 15 Professional and the iPhone 15 Professional Max is weird, particularly when you think about the worth of the units in India and examine that to the costs within the US and the remainder of the world.
The pricing technique appears much more weird when you think about that the costs of the non-Professional fashions, the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus are the identical as final 12 months’s iPhone 14 non-Professional collection.
The iPhone 15 Professional begins at Rs 1,34,900 in India, whereas within the US, it begins on the identical value as final 12 months, $999 or Rs 82,850 (transformed). In India, the launch value of the bottom variant of the iPhone 14 Professional was Rs 1,29,900, Rs 5000 lower than this 12 months’s mannequin.
How unhealthy is the disparity between worldwide and Indian costs?
Even Value Parity ratios make little to no sense in terms of the distinction in pricing in India and the US.
Think about this conundrum. In India, when you purchase the iPhone 15 Professional’s 128 GB variant, you pay Rs 1,34,900. That’s about $1625. Within the US, not solely can you purchase the brand new iPhone 15 Professional’s 128GB variant, you can too purchase their top-of-the-line Apple Watch Extremely 2, and nonetheless save sufficient cash to splurge on a reasonably respectable dinner in a fancy restaurant within the US, or some first-party Apple equipment.
Equally, you’ll nonetheless come out forward when you purchase a return ticket to the UAE, particularly Dubai, purchase your iPhone 15 Professional there, after which fly again. And in case you need to go for the upper tier fashions 512GB or 1TB variants of the Professional or the Professional Max, you’ll find yourself saving extra.
Does Apple have a defence?
Truthfully, it doesn’t appear that Apple can actually give a respectable cause why the iPhone 15 Professional collection’ value in India is what it’s. Sure, we do have sure taxes and import duties that make tech merchandise costly in India. Nevertheless, they don’t seem to be this egregious.
The factor is that this 12 months, Apple is definitely making a bulk of the iPhones it plans to promote to in India, in its Indian factories. And whereas Apple could not have began making the extra premium, Professional lineup in India but, the costs of those units are unlikely to go down even after they do launch the India-made Professional units right here.
Apple is definitely charging us extra for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, units that it already makes in India than what they’re charging individuals within the US and different worldwide markets. In such a case, we’ve to ask, what good does it do for Indian shoppers if, as a substitute of decreasing its costs in India, Apple nonetheless continues to cost an Apple Premium from us.
And even when we think about the technological developments which can be coming with the iPhone 15 Professional collection, the US and the worldwide market are getting the identical machine that we’re getting. In reality, we’re being short-changed right here as effectively, as a number of the emergency SOS options that have been introduced for the iPhone 14 collection final 12 months, nonetheless haven’t made their approach to India.
None of this issues
In a great world, we may have voted with our wallets. Nevertheless, everyone knows how that works out in the actual world. Sadly, none of that basically issues.
Apple is effectively conscious of the truth that its clients will pony up no matter Apple fees them for his or her units. Folks will nonetheless queue up in entrance of Apple Saket and Apple BKC on September 22, when the units lastly go on sale.
Apple already has a stronghold over the US market, because of its ubiquitous ecosystem. And whereas they could not have that widespread a presence in India, it has one thing much more potent – the benefit of being the ‘it’ model, a model that completely personifies aspiration.