Apple cuts iPhone price in India amid China slowdown

Image Credits: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Apple has reduced the prices of its pro iPhone models in India by 3% to 4% after the country’s government slashed import duties on imported smartphones to 15% from 20%. Apple’s price cuts range from ₹300 (about $3.6) for the made-in-India iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15, ₹2,300 ($27.5) for iPhone SE and to up to ₹6,000 ($72) for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

This is the first time Apple has lowered prices on current-generation Pro models in India.

The price cut also comes at a time when demand for iPhones seems to be slowing down in China. Market research firm Canalys said this week that Apple’s smartphone shipments in China had declined by 6.7% in the quarter ended June compared to a year earlier.

“Apple is facing a bottleneck in mainland China,” wrote Canalys research analyst Lucas Zhong

Apple declined to comment.

Though the price reduction is a welcome move, iPhones remain prohibitively expensive in India. The cheapest iPhone 15 Pro model, which costs $999 in the U.S., still costs $1,550 in India.

India has emerged as a key overseas market for Apple, which is increasingly expanding its manufacturing base in the country. Apple’s revenue from India jumped 42% to $8.7 billion in 2023 from a year earlier, according to Morgan Stanley.

iPhone shipments in India climbed 39% to 9.2 million units in 2023, making it the company’s fifth-largest market for its phones. India’s market for iPhones is larger than any single country in the European Union, Morgan Stanley added.

Apple’s share of the country’s smartphone market is also surging as the domestic economy improves. The company’s market share had reached double digits in Q4 last year, though the share has fallen since, according to UBS and Counterpoint.

News outlet Moneycontrol reported Friday that Apple plans to start assembling the pro models of its next generation iPhone models in India this year. Google announced last year that it too will begin manufacturing its smartphone, the Pixel line-up, in India starting 2024.