iPhone 15 and 16 may soon cost more in India as Apple pulls back retail incentives
Follow UsOlder iPhones like iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 may become about Rs 5,000 more expensive.
Discounts are reducing, so buyers will end up paying more overall.
Newer models like iPhone 17 won’t be affected by this change.
Buying a slightly older iPhone in India may soon become more expensive for consumers. Reports say that popular iPhones like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 may become about Rs 5,000 more expensive. This is expected because Apple might stop giving its Demand Generation (DG) support for older iPhone models. The DG has been one of the biggest incentives so far for offering discounts to customers without reducing its official prices. Moreover, Apple has also recently slashed its cashback offers, which has already impacted the savings of customers. Here’s everything we know so far about the price hike for older Apple models.
SurveyWhat is driving the iPhone price hike?
Demand generation support is a backend incentive that brands provide to retailers. It allows sellers to offer discounts while keeping the maximum retail price unchanged. For models like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16, this support has played a major role in keeping effective prices lower.
With this support now being withdrawn, retailers will not be able to offer the same level of discounts to the consumers. As a result, buyers will likely have to pay more out of pocket, even though official prices remain the same.
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Cashback cuts added to the impact
This change comes shortly after cashback offers were reduced sharply by Apple earlier, on its 50th anniversary. Earlier, buyers could get benefits of up to Rs 6,000, but that has now dropped to around Rs 1,000.
The reduction in the cashbacks has already made Apple’s recent purchases less attractive. Furthermore, the combined effect of reduced cashback and removal of backend discounts is expected to increase the overall final cost for the consumers.
Limited impact on newer iPhone models
However, this change will not impact the latest iPhone 17 series, as the move of removing the demand generation support is mainly focused on older models that are still in demand. These products will attract users who want to get better value for their money, especially after the launch of newer products.
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Market trends and what lies ahead
The smartphone market in India is already facing rising prices across brands due to an increase in the prices of components, especially memory and storage. However, the demand for iPhones has remained constant up until now and is likely to remain the same as the people in India are using EMI options, which will help them deal with the increased prices.
