India gets one of world's steepest iPhone price hikes

The hikes followed Apple's September event, where new Chief Executive John Ternus unveiled Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo.

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BENGALURU: Apple raised prices on its existing iPhone lineup in India by as much as 41 per cent within hours of unveiling newer models, bucking its usual practice of discounting older variants and marking one of the steepest hikes in any market where it has repriced this year.

While Apple also raised prices in the US late on Wednesday (Sep 9), those increases ranged from 10 per cent to 21 per cent. The hikes followed Apple's September event, dubbed "Surprise and Shine", where new Chief Executive John Ternus unveiled Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo.

Apple had previously announced plans to raise iPhone prices globally, citing increasing memory and storage chip costs. A surge in AI-driven demand for data centres has forced consumer ‌electronics companies into a fierce competition for dwindling supplies of the key components, driving up costs.

India is one of Apple's fastest-growing markets and now also assembles a large share of the iPhones it sells globally. 

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That hasn't insulated Indian buyers from price increases: import duties for components and an 18 per cent goods and services tax still push iPhone prices in India well above US levels.

The India price for the lower storage variant of the iPhone 17 rose nearly 21 per cent to 99,900 Indian rupees (US$1,048), while the iPhone Air recorded the sharpest jump in the lineup at a 41 per cent increase to 224,900 Indian rupees for its one terabyte variant. 

In comparison, the equivalent US variants rose nearly 13 per cent to US$899 for the base iPhone 17, and 21 per cent to US$1,699 for the iPhone Air 1TB.

The increases drew swift reaction on social media in India, with some commentators arguing the pricing pushes the iPhone further into luxury territory for Indian buyers. Many also pointed to the India pricing of the foldable iPhone, which is US$1,100 costlier than in the US.

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