Mumbai: Technology giant Apple hiked the price of its existing iPhone 6 line up by 29 per cent in India to compensate the sluggish demand for its latest 4-inch, upgraded iPhone SE.
According to a report on Economic Times, Apple has been forced to surge prices for its older iPhone 6 and 6S, to commensurate the dreadful response received by the new iPhone SE—only 1000 pieces of the company’s new 4-inch iPhone was sold since its launch.
Several sources revealed that the Cupertino-based company has decided to withdraw some of the offers for offered during January and March period.
Update: Apple, however, has declined any such move and termed the report as 'totally false and untrue'. The company also said that the original prices of its devices can be found on the website itself.
Before the revise, an iPhone 6 (16GB) was priced at Rs 31,000 whereas the iPhone SE (16 GB) retails at Rs 39,000. Additionally, the iPhone 6S (16 GB) also came with a price tag of Rs 40,500 before the price hike.
While the SE is right up there with the elite Apple devices in terms of the price, the same cannot be said for the hardware - the handset does not support 3D Touch, Live Photos, exclusively available on iPhone 6S.
Moreover, the handset employs a two year old display technology and the total manufacturing cost of the phone is roughly Rs 10,500. Numerous questions were raised and the company received flak for retailing the device at such an exorbitant rate. The iPhone SE still continues to find itself in a tight spot in India.
After the revise, the iPhone 6’s elementary version will cost users Rs 40,000 and the 6S will cost approximately Rs 48,000. Even the two year old iphone 5S’s price was hiked by 22 per cent. The company has also released several corporate and personal EMI schemes for easy purchase.
However, there is no guarantee if this move will trigger public displeasure or help the company cope with the recent failure.
At a time when Samsung has launched two new flagships in the country, its high time Apple should come up with a better strategy (and price) to thrive in India.
Also, reports have proved time and again that more people are attracted towards large-screened devices in the country, and such a high-priced, small-screened device won’t help them capture the vast premium-budget smartphone market.
