Apple is reportedly going to stop making as well as selling the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S series and iPhone SE in the Indian market from now on. This has been picked via industry sources, quoted in an Economic Times report published this week.
According to the report, the company will now be making use of the idle assembly line which was earlier occupied by these iPhones, and focus on using them to assemble iPhone 7 and most likely iPhone X for the local market.
The fact that Apple will stop selling its highly popular iPhone 6 and 6S series means, the entry-level model for the company will be the iPhone 7, which is still available for over around 40k in the country.
The report suggests that Apple is now keen to increase its revenues from the Indian market, without looking to bump up the sales numbers.
This strategy has helped Apple achieve big revenues globally, catapulted by the sales of high-end iPhone X, and then the iPhone XS series, which were priced above $899 (Rs 56,000 approx) in most parts of the world.
Having said that, India being a price-conscious market, might not respond kindly to Apple’s latest reported attempt to sell its products for a premium.
Apple usually doesn’t comment on such developments, but if you look at the online stores from Amazon, or Flipkart, the aforementioned iPhone 6 series is still available, in stock and can be bought even now.
While the iPhone 6, 6S and SE have been discontinued globally, these devices continue to sell in India, with attractive discounts, probably Apple’s effort to clear off the remaining stock.
Also, it’s interesting to see this development, especially when Apple had just started locally assembling the iPhone 6S and SE in the country, and sell them at a lower price point.
We even spoke to multiple Apple offline stores to check the availability of iPhone 6 or 6S. Some executives clearly mentioned that the series has been discontinued, but you can still get hold of them, through some offline as well as online stores.
It’s clear that Apple is looking to make higher profits at the cost of low volume sales, and this playbook is likely to give them better returns out of its business in India. This became evident recently, when the iPhone Xr was selling for as low as Rs 50,000 after applying discount and cashbacks.
Apple has already pointed out that iPhone 6, 6S and SE will not be getting updated to iOS 13 later this year.
Clearly, Apple doesn’t want to focus on people looking to buy iPhones selling at Rs 26,000. Instead, they would rather have less people going for other premium models, like the iPhone Xr, which sells for double the cost of the iPhone 6 or 6S.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)