As iPhone 16 goes on sale, India suddenly finds Apple within reach

Apple’s iPhone 16 hit the stores on Friday at one of the lowest first-day prices for any new iPhone, inviting queues of buyers who could help the Cupertino giant widen its share in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.

Stores reported brisk demand from iPhone-lovers keen to pocket the new arrival at the earliest, despite murmurs that it looks barely different from its predecessors. The key reason: Rising affordability of the iPhone, whose price gap with rivals has shrunk over the years.

Over 200 buyers had lined up outside Apple Store at Delhi’s Select Citywalk mall before it opened, a company executive said. Anticipating the rush, the store had opened three hours earlier at 8 AM, but buyers turned up as early as 4 AM, the executive said on the condition of anonymity, adding this year has seen a bigger rush than last.

Base model @

Thanks to bank tie-ups, discounts and exchange offers, one can secure the iPhone 16 base model at ₹48,900 at authorized retailers—or potentially even less, depending on the device they exchange. Though this is still more than twice India’s average smartphone price of ₹22,000, it is still more affordable than previous iPhones. For instance, the iPhone 15 had a starting price approaching ₹60,000 on launch day, including exchange price but no exchange bonus. To be sure, the official price of the iPhone 16 base model is still ₹79,900.

Alongside, Apple has cut sticker prices of the iPhone 15 and 14 to ₹69,900 € ₹59,900 respectively. With similar bank and exchange offers applicable on both these devices, the iPhone 14 is now available for as low as ₹40,000.

The measures have brought iPhone within the reach of more Indians, retailers and analysts said. “Add 12-month and 24-month installations to such a deal, and you’d find many buyers getting a new iPhone 16 at a 24-month installation plan of just ₹2,500 per month. This is one of the most affordable prices that Apple’s devices have had until date,” one of the retailers cited above said.

Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint India said, “Early feedback from retailers suggests a double-digit year-on-year jump in first-day sales of the iPhone 16, making it potentially one of the best opening days for Apple in recent years . We’re expecting December quarter shipments, taking the festive season into account, to go above 4 million units, as AI features roll out in the coming weeks.”

Up market share ladder

Over the years, Apple has consistently clawed up the smartphone market share ladder.

The company, which had below 1% volume market share of smartphones in India five years ago ended 2023 with 6.3%, data from market researcher International Data Corp. showed. In value market share, Apple has always fared better, given its premium pricing. Last year, its average selling price of $941 was 3.7 times the industry average of $255. This helped Apple India end the year with a 23% share of the industry’s $37.1-billion net revenue, beating Samsung to the top spot for the first time ever.

Apart from the starting price of around ₹48,900 available only at certain stores, three multi-brand retailers they said are selling the iPhone 16 at close to ₹60,000, including bank-linked discounts of up to ₹5,000. Besides, a five-year-old iPhone 11 in good shape still gets as much as ₹15,000 in exchange value, they said.

A top executive at one of India’s largest multi-brand electronics retail chains said, “The key demand that we’ve seen is for the base variant of the iPhone 16 lineup, which many buyers are keen to upgrade to. We are cashing in on this demand with exchange offers and bank-linked cashback offers and no-cost installations. With reduced pricing, the demand continues to remain particularly strong for the older models too.”

Short supply

A Mumbai-based multi-brand electronics retailer said the Pro variants are in short supply. “Right now, the demand at our stall isn’t as high as the past year, although we expect it to ramp-up in the next three months. This is not just for discounts, but because we expect more supplies of the Pro models to come in,” he said.

“It has been quite a journey for Apple in India, culminating in a significant market presence today and becoming the biggest smartphone brand by revenue,” said Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India. “Supply constraints of the Pro models will ease out in the coming month or so, which is a natural cycle. Even though you likely won’t see prices relax further at the upcoming festive season, Apple may well be on a trajectory to enter the top five of the Indian smartphone market, with 12% market share or more, by 2027,” Singh said.