“iPhones were sold out in most of the neighbourhood stores after demonetisation. In fact, on that night (of November 8) itself several stores sold iPhones till midnight. Some even sold them at a premium,” said the owner of a leading neighbourhood cellphone store in New Delhi.
The rush to offload cancelled currency notes by buying these expensive handsets has resulted in Apple being the only phone maker to meet sales target in November. Its sales during the month are estimated to have grown by 20-30% while handset sales, as a whole, are down compared with the year-ago period, said four industry executives. Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research’s senior analyst Tarun Pathak said the Indian smartphone market will contract by 10% in October .
The newly launched iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sell in India for Rs 60,000 to Rs 92,000 and are the most expensive handsets available in the market. “There is still a novelty factor for iPhones amongst Indian consumers since it is the costliest handset, and people were buying multiple units for themselves and to gift,” said Subhash Chandra, managing director of South India’s leading cellphone retailer Sangeetha Mobiles. Chandra said large retailers and chains like his own stopped accepting old notes after the demonetisation announcement
A percentage of iPhones sold in the grey market is sourced from online channels. But with ecommerce companies stopping cash-on-delivery sales, supply of these phones dried up. iPhone sales in November were further boosted by adequate availability of iPhone 7 Plus in the market. In October, Apple had miscalculated demand for the bigger handsets.
Apple iPhone 7 specifications
- 4.7-inch (1334 x 750 pixels) IPS 326 ppi display, 1400:1 contrast ratio, 3D Touch
- Quad-core A10 Fusion 64-bit processor with six-core GPU, M10 motion co-processor
- 32GB,128GB and 256GB storage options
- iOS 10
- Water and dust resistant (IP67)
- 12MP camera, f/1.8 aperture, OIS, Six‑element lens Quad-LED True Tone flash, 4K video recording at 30 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 120 fps and 720p at 240 fps
- 7MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture, 1080p video recording,Retina Flash
- Fingerprint sensor, Stereo speakers
- Dimensions: 138.3x 67.1×7.1 mm; Weight: 138grams
- 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS with GLONASS
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with up to 10 days standby, Up to 12 hours internet use on 3G/4G LTE, 14 hours on Wi-Fi
Apple iPhone 7 Plus specifications
- 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) IPS 401ppi display, 1300:1 contrast ratio, 3D Touch
- Quad-core A10 Fusion 64-bit processor with six-core GPU, M10 motion co-processor
- 32GB,128GB and 256GB storage options
- iOS 10
- Water and dust resistant (IP67)
- 12MP camera wide-angle (f/1.8) and telephoto (f/2.8) cameras, OIS, Optical zoom at 2x; digital zoom up to 10x, Six‑element lens, Quad-LED True Tone flash, 4K video recording at 30 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 120 fps and 720p at 240 fps
- 7MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture, 1080p video recording,Retina Flash
- Fingerprint sensor, Stereo speakers
- Dimensions: 158.2x 77.9×7.3 mm; Weight: 188grams
- 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS with GLONASS
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with up to 16 days standby, Up to 13 hours internet use on 3G/4G LTE, 15 hours on Wi-Fi
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