Apple has slashed the price of the iPhone 6s in India, reportedly after lower than expected sales over Diwali.
The handsets are now at least 16 percent cheaper than when they first launched two months ago — with the the basic 16GB iPhone 6s now costing between Rs 52,000 and Rs 55,000 ($785 – $830), down from the Rs 62,000 ($935) launch price. Many retailers are additionally offering other incentives to try and get customers to buy.
As I’ve written before, India is a growing market for Apple, although it is yet to find exactly the right strategy to grow in a market where there is such a disparity between rich and poor customers, and many will opt for lower cost handsets. This isn’t the first time Apple has cut its product prices in India in an attempt to grow market share and get them into more people’s hands.
Apple is also pursuing other avenues to growing its business in India. This year Tim Cook has met with the Indian prime minister to discuss all things Apple, and come to an arrangement about official Apple Stores in India, alongside launching the Apple Watch and, most recently, the iPad Pro.
India’s Communications and I.T. Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has additionally pushed for Apple to open an R&D center in the country, while there has been increasing talk about Foxconn shifting iPhone production to India, since this would allow it to get around the problem of accelerating wage inflation in China, where the majority of iPhones are made at the moment.
Recently we reported on Apple’s decision to try and stabilize its sales in India by targeting the education and enterprise market — with hopes that this will one day make up an impressive 15-20 percent of its revenue.
With record sales worldwide, I doubt that Apple execs are going to lose too much sleep over disappointing iPhone sales in India. Having made progress in 2015, however, hopefully next year will be the year Apple’s work in India finally takes off as hoped.
Source: Economic Times
