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With festivities all around, looks like smart phone makers are too in the mood of adding a cherry on the cake. U.S. based company Apple who is known for iPhones has recently cut down the market price of its latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus by up to 16 percent. What makes this news more interesting is the fact that both of these IPhones came in the Indian market just 2 months back. Analysts look it as an attempt to boost sales as this segment received a strong downfall quite recently.
The reduction in price has also narrowed down the gap between the prices of iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and iPhone 6 that was launched in 2014. With the initial launch of iPhone 6s at a price of INR 62,000 on October 16 this year, the reduced price now lies in the range of INR 52.000 to INR 55,000. The price cuts are across all variants - 16 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB of both models. National retailers believe that the average difference in prices of all iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices between launch time and now is about 15 per cent and before the reduction the price difference between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s was a lot, so many buyers weren't willing to upgrade to the new model.
This is the first time that the price of an Apple flagship has been brought down within two months of launch, underlining concerns around the initial pricing, said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research. He also stressed on the fact that the iPhone 5s, launched in 2013, could hamper iPhone 6s sales due to the massive price difference between them. Now that they have aligned prices, we can see some sales happening in future quarters, which will also sustain Apple in the typically weaker periods of January to September, Pathak added.
Analysts said the price cut could re-ignite iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus demand in the coming months with Apple slashing down the price of iPhone 5s for the third time in past three months, the phone now starting at INR 24,999, which is almost half its September price. As per the analysts, the repetitive price cuts by Apple indicate that the company may be trying to revive demand in the October-to-December quarter, which according to records has been the strongest period for the company due to its flagship launches.
In the October month, Apple imported almost 320,000 of the latest iPhones in India which is the world's fastest-growing smartphone market, that makes Apple believe in making higher sales. However, if latest reports are to be believed, shipments have slumped down drastically and the rate of import of the new products have fallen by 62 percent to just 120,000 in November. It is also said that Apple's distributors are now selling the iPhone models at marked-down prices, allowing the retailers to offer all models at discounted rates.
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