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Apple stops selling iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s Plus in India
Apple has stopped selling the ‘lower priced’ smartphones iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus and 6s Plus in India.
Apple has taken four of its ‘lower
priced’ smartphones off the shelves in India, making it more expensive to buy
an entry-level iPhone.
As part of its new strategy to focus on driving
value in India instead of chasing volumes, Apple has stopped selling the iPhone
SE, 6, 6Plus and 6sPlus, three senior industry executives said. This will
increase the entry level price of an iPhone in India by almost Rs 8,000.
The executives said supplies of these models
stopped last month. Apple’s distributors and sales team have informed traders
that the new entry model will be the iPhone 6s, as and when the existing stock
of the earlier models gets sold.
The iPhone 6s currently sells for about Rs
29,500, while the iPhone SE, the earlier entry model, used to sell for Rs
21,000-22,000.
The four models are out of stock on Amazon
India, while on Flipkart, the iPhone SE and 6Plus are out of stock and not all
variants of the other two models are available. All four models continue to be
listed as available in the US, according to Apple’s website.
The decision was taken after Apple improved its
revenue and profit in India in 2018-19, even though iPhone sales volumes took a
hit, with the focus more on pushing the latest and higher-priced models. An
industry executive said Apple India’s sales in the April-June quarter had gone
up after it undertook apromotion to drop iPhone XR prices. Apple
is yet to file its India financials for FY19 with the Registrar of Companies.
In FY18, Apple India’s revenue increased 12% to Rs 13,097 crore while net
profit more than doubled to Rs 896 crore, as per RoC disclosures. Cupertino, California-based Apple reduced the
number of distributors in India to two from five last year and decided to rein
in arbitrary discounts to reinforce the brand’s premium. Apple used to assemble the iPhone SE in India
along with the 6s and 7. The idle capacity may now be used to expand production
of other models, one executive said. Another executive said Apple has certainly not
given up on the potential of the Indian market and will continue to roll out
affordability programmes like buy-back and cashback offers. The company will localise its upcoming iPhone
operating system iOS 13 for the first time for Indian consumers, with support
for 22 Indian languages, maps for navigation and virtual assistant Siri, which
can now talk and understand Indian English.These initiatives highlight how Apple still
considers India an important market for business. Just that the priority has
changed from just selling a box to improving overall-sales experience, brand
positioning and financials,” he said.
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13 Feb, 2021
13 Feb, 2021