Apple To Stop Selling Older iPhones In India

Dhir Acharya - Mar 19, 2019

While Apple has set its iPhone as premium products in other markets around the world, the offerings are still too expensive for Indian consumers.

Winning over the Indian market has always been a challenge for Apple. While the company has set its iPhone as premium products in other markets around the world, the offerings are still too expensive for the majority of Indian consumers.

In its latest attempt to gain market share and emphasize its premium position in the country as a smartphone player, the Cupertino-based company is pulling old unsold iPhones from stores.

Apple executives talked to the Economic Times about their plan to improve iPhone sales in India. Accordingly, the Cupertino-based company will no longer sell the iPhone 6 in this market, which means the iPhone 6s will become the single entry-level iPhone model on sale. Up to now, Wistron has only been assembling the phones, even though they have got approved by the Indian government of locally manufacturing more premium iPhone models.

Previously, Apple released the iPhone SE as well as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s with the purpose to offer India consumers with more affordable iPhone models. However, Apple seemed to forget one critical fact, while the phones were relatively cheaper than other iPhones, there are a massive number of Android smartphones that cost less for more capabilities.

That has led to today with the company’s decision to re-establish its “premium” roots and to be included again. Accordingly, Apple will stop offering the Indian market with the iPhone 6 and offerings will start from iPhone 6s, which costs Rs 6,000 higher than the iPhone 6. The company used to do the same with its iPhone SE. However, the company later clarified that it's not raising prices. An Apple executive said:

In addition, the company will also stop working with retail stores that are smaller than 32 to 37 square meters and sell less than 35 units each month. Meanwhile, it will focus to set up Apple Authorized Resellers which cover over 45 square meters, each trade partner will monitor more than one store of this kind. The idea here is to generate higher productivity from fewer trade partners.

It is likely that the launch of the most premium iPhones will higher prioritize India arrivals. It’s interesting to see what result will come from Apple’s new move.