India gets one of world's steepest iPhone price hikes

BENGALURU, Sept 10 — Apple raised prices on its existing iPhone lineup in India by as ​much as 41% within hours of unveiling newer models, bucking its usual practice of discounting older variants and marking one of ‌the steepest hikes in any market where it has repriced this year.

While Apple also raised prices ⁠in the U.S. late Wednesday, those ​increases ranged from 10% to 21%. ⁠The hikes followed Apple's September event, dubbed 'Surprise and Shine,' where new ‌Chief Executive John Ternus ‌unveiled Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo.

Apple had previously announced ⁠plans to raise iPhone prices globally, ⁠citing increasing memory and storage chip costs. A surge in AI-driven demand for data centers has forced consumer electronics companies into a fierce competition for dwindling supplies of the key components, driving up costs.

India is one of Apple's fastest-growing markets and now also assembles a large ‌share of the iPhones it sells globally.

That hasn't ​insulated Indian buyers from price increases: import duties for components and an 18% goods and services tax still push iPhone prices in India well above U.S. levels.

The India price for the lower storage variant of the iPhone 17 rose nearly 21% to 99,900 Indian rupees ($1,048), while the iPhone Air recorded the sharpest jump in the lineup at ​a 41% increase to 224,900 Indian rupees ($2,359) for its one terabyte variant.

In comparison, the ‌equivalent U.S. variants ‌rose ⁠nearly 13% to $899 for the base iPhone 17, and 21% to $1,699 for the iPhone Air 1 TB.

The increases drew swift reaction on social media in India, with some commentators arguing the pricing pushes the iPhone further into luxury ‌territory for Indian buyers. ​Many also pointed to the India pricing ‌of the foldable iPhone, ⁠which is $1,100 ​costlier than in the U.S.

($1 = 95.3400 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in BengaluruEditing by ​Keith Weir)

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