When Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo at its ‘Surprise and Shine’ event this week, the new products were expected to set the tone for India’s premium smartphone market heading into the festive season. What accompanied the launches drew equal, if quieter, attention: a sweeping upward revision of prices on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17e, iPhone Air, iPhone 16, and several accessories, with increases ranging from 12% on the iPhone 16 to over 40% on the 1TB variant of the iPhone Air. All changes went live on Apple’s India website, although you can still see some of these models listed at their old prices with online retailers. The iPhone price hikes arrive at a difficult moment for the broader retail market. According to Kailash Lakhyani, Founder Chairman of the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), retail sales volumes at the ground level are currently down 30–40%, driven by a broader cycle of price increases that has been building across Android brands since November last year. “Smartphone prices have been steadily rising since November last year across Android brands. Now, for the very first time, Apple has also increased prices,” Lakhyani noted, adding that the revision was not unexpected given soaring global component costs and rupee depreciation of approximately 7.78–8.07% against the US dollar over the past year.
| Device and variant | Old price | New price | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 17 (256GB) | Rs 82,900 | Rs 99,900 | 20.51% |
| iPhone 17 (512GB) | Rs 1,02,900 | Rs 1,24,900 | 21.38% |
| iPhone 17e (256GB) | Rs 64,900 | Rs 79,900 | 23.11% |
| iPhone 17e (512GB) | Rs 84,900 | Rs 1,04,900 | 23.56% |
| iPhone Air (256GB) | Rs 1,19,900 | Rs 1,49,900 | 25.02% |
| iPhone Air (512GB) | Rs 1,39,900 | Rs 1,74,900 | 25.02% |
| iPhone Air (1TB) | Rs 1,59,900 | Rs 2,24,900 | 40.65% |
| iPhone 16 (128GB) | Rs 79,900 | Rs 89,900 | 12.52% |
| AirPods Pro 3 | Rs 25,900 | Rs 27,900 | 7.72% |
| AirPods Max 2 | Rs 67,900 | Rs 74,900 | 10.31% |
| Apple Watch SE 3 | Rs 25,900 | Rs 29,900 | 15.44% |
Also read: Apple Event 2026: iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max launched in India, check price and specs here
While acknowledging the macroeconomic pressures, Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst at Techarc, argues that Apple’s brand position in India allows it to manage price increases in ways other manufacturers cannot. “Almost every brand has increased prices across segments, so Apple doesn’t stand out here,” he said. “The pull around Apple is not going, and these are rising years for the brand in India.” He attributes roughly five percentage points of the hike directly to dollar appreciation and points to the internal consistency of Apple’s pricing architecture, particularly the positioning of the Duo relative to the standard iPhone lineup, as evidence of deliberate strategy rather than reactive adjustment.
Kawoosa also draws attention to how Apple has used the Duo’s naming to signal its value positioning. “I think Apple fully recognises the pull it has and it knows how to leverage it,” he said. “The fact that it named its fold Duo indicates this positioning”, which is essentially a reference to the device being framed as delivering twice the value of a standard iPhone and with a price to match.
Lakhyani notes that while the iPhone 18 Pro hikes were anticipated, Apple CEO Tim Cook had signalled unavoidable price increases several months ago; the timing, immediately ahead of India’s peak festive buying window in October and November, catches consumers at a moment when demand sentiment for iPhones is typically at its highest. He expects the market to slow further once existing inventory at old price points is exhausted over the next few days and anticipates a knock-on effect across flagship Android lines, with Samsung, Vivo, and Oppo premium series likely to follow with their own upward revisions.
No single price point has drawn more scrutiny than the Rs 2,99,900 starting price of the iPhone Duo. Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, attributes the steep figure directly to the device’s current manufacturing status: initial Duo units will not be produced under India’s Make in India programme, meaning imported stock attracts full import duty. Combined with 18% GST and the forex impact, Pathak estimates a net additional burden of over 40% on the landed cost: approximately 17% import duty, 18% GST and 5–6% from currency movement. “India pricing is steep and the difference is primarily due to the fact that initial Duo sales will not be Made in India for some time,” he said.
Despite the price point, Pathak expects early adoption to be driven by loyal Apple users and early technology adopters who have specifically waited for a foldable from the company. He sees the Duo as a device that will expand India’s foldable segment by value rather than volume in the near term and one that serves as a clear signal from Apple that foldables are becoming a serious segment within the ultra-premium tier. “Many will kind of bookmark this device as their future potential purchase as well,” he added.
Lakhyani estimates the gap between the Duo’s India retail price and its landed cost in markets such as the US and Dubai at Rs 80,000–90,000, with the comparable landed cost in those markets coming in at approximately Rs 2,12,000–2,20,000. This disparity, he argues, actively incentivises grey market activity, penalising consumers who buy through official channels and causing direct harm to organised retailers, large-format retail chains and exclusive stores that operate strictly through authorised supply chains. “We urge policymakers and brand leadership to urgently equalise this price gap and protect India’s formal retail ecosystem,” Lakhyani said.
Yogesh Brar, an independent analyst who tracks Apple’s India performance closely, situates the current pricing within a broader pattern of disproportionate cost-passing. Apple crossed $10bn in annual India sales in the fiscal year ending March 2026, yet the country continues to face some of the highest effective prices for the new iPhone lineup and the disparity is no longer limited to comparisons with the US. “India is no longer expensive only when compared with the US; several Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore, offer substantially more favourable pricing,” Brar noted.
The iPhone 18 Pro starts at Rs 1,64,900 in India against $1,199 in the US; the Pro Max is Rs 1,79,900 against $1,299. Brar draws particular attention to the movement in iPhone 17 pricing as an indicator of how costs are being distributed across markets. In the US, the iPhone 17 went up by $100, from $799 to $899. In India, the corresponding increase is Rs 17,000. “That suggests Apple is passing on rising component, memory, and currency costs disproportionately across markets rather than applying a uniform global increase,” he said.
Brar acknowledges Apple’s considerable pricing power in India, but points to a contradiction in the company’s current posture. “The company is generating record revenue, expanding local manufacturing and retail and seeing India emerge as a strategic growth market, while Indian buyers continue to pay one of the highest premiums for its products,” he said. Above Rs 1,50,000, and certainly at Rs 2,99,900 for the Duo, he argues, these devices “stop competing purely as smartphones and start becoming luxury purchases accessible to a much narrower audience.”
Despite the broader market pressures, analysts expect the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to perform strongly through the festive window, underpinned by no-cost EMI schemes and a loyal upgrade base that Lakhyani describes as comprising “aspirational youth, business leaders, and working professionals”, who are unlikely to compromise on the Apple ecosystem.
Pathak projects a low single-digit volume decline for Apple in India over the year, offset by 6–7% value growth. Key drivers include the Duo, a rising share of Pro models in Apple’s India sales mix, expected to reach 15% of total volume by the end of 2026, up from 11% in 2025 and a stronger-than-expected contribution from the refurbished and trade-in market, which Pathak expects to accelerate as higher new device prices make trade-in offers more financially significant for buyers. He notes that older models, including the iPhone 15, will remain active volume contributors through the festive quarter and that the outcome will depend substantially on how aggressively trade-in and financing options are structured by Apple and its retail partners.
For the broader trade, the festive season remains an open question. Lakhyani’s concern for neighbourhood retailers operating in the sub-Rs 15,000 budget segment is more immediate: consumer preferences have shifted sharply towards Rs 20,000-plus devices, increasingly purchased through organised chain stores and direct brand outlets rather than traditional multi-brand retailers. Post-Diwali, he warns, the combination of elevated price points and concentrated retail formats could pose an existential challenge for smaller operators who have historically depended on volume in the entry-level segment.
For now, the festive season stands as the first real test of how deeply Apple’s price reset will be absorbed and at what point pricing power gives way to purchasing hesitation.
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