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If you thought the serpentine queues outside Apple Inc stores in the US defined the craze for the newly-launched iPhone 6, think again.
Apple hasn’t yet announced a launch date for the phone in India yet, but the highly-coveted mobile phone has already reached Indian shores and is being sold at a hefty premium.
In their race to beat buyers queuing outside Apple stores in other countries, Indian Apple fans are willing to pay as much as three times the non-contract price of the phone in the US.
While iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are being sold at $199-499 (Rs 12,100-30,400) with a two-year contract in the US, buyers in India are purchasing these at the grey market for a whopping Rs 100,000-200,000.
“I have sold six phones since Sunday,” claims a store owner in the tony Indiranagar area here. He is selling the iPhone 6 (64 GB) at Rs 1,10,000 and the iPhone 6 Plus(128 GB) at Rs 1,80,000. A little bargaining might, at best, fetch you a discount of Rs 5,000.
This storekeeper has the two iPhones in only one colour, but promises to get other colours on demand within minutes!
Several other sellers across this city are selling the new iPhones at Rs 100,000-200,000. At the grey market in Mumbai, the phones are available at similar prices.
Meanwhile, fans of Apple products in India are feeling left out. “There is no India launch date on Apple’s website,” says Blessen Philip, a design engineer and a loyalist of the US-based consumer electronics manufacturer, waiting to buy an iPhone 6 for his wife. “Multinationals such as Apple and (Italian motorbike manufacturer) Ducati don’t even consider India a market, while they have buyers here. It is a letdown that we don’t even know when we will be able to buy the new iPhone legally.”
Currently, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are available only in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK.
Earlier this month, the Apple website said the new iPhones would be made available in India on September 26, when they are scheduled to hit stores across countries such as Austria, Italy, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. However, the India launch date was later changed to October 17 and, eventually, removed from the site.
The manager of an Apple iPlanet store here says there is no update from the company, adding a confirmed date and a price at which the new phones would be sold in India was possible by mid-October. He expects the iPhone 6 to be priced at Rs 55,000-60,000.
Interest among iPhone users in India peaked after reports claimed about 10 million iPhones were sold in the opening weekend.
Through 2008, Apple had managed to sell about 13 million iPhones.
“I am not planning to buy a new iPhone because I bought an iPhone 5S last year. But I definitely want to touch and feel the iPhone 6 Plus, because it seems a promising phone,” says Pune-based software professional Aditya Joshi.
“It is upsetting that the phone hasn’t been launched in India yet. But Apple is a premium brand here, and it should maintain its brand value. I am sure buyers will eagerly await the iPhone 6 because it doesn’t only have great technology, but is a status symbol for several Indian users.”
The hype over iPhone 6
