Deep discounts are back on Apple iPhones in India

During this festive season, heavy discounts on iPhones are being offered after almost two years. Apple's iPhones are being offered with discounts of up to 35% on Amazon and Flipkart.

Such deep discounts on iPhones will help to attract customers to online marketplaces and consumers eventually end up buying more than just an iPhone, helping the platforms and sellers to achieve sales targets.

Apple is likely to capture 2% share in the coming Q4 2020 with the help of bank offers and discounts on older models during the festive season, said Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research. He said, "We expect Apple to grow 16% over 2019 in terms of shipments in 2020."

Analysts said that Apple is expected to clock a 16-22% on year growth in smartphone shipments in India in 2020, sharply higher than a 4% rise in 2019 and a 44% fall in 2018, driven largely by older generation of its iPhones like XR, SE, 11 and the latest iPhone 12 mini. The growth will also be fuelled by deep discounting on the marketplace.

Apple’s expected growth comes at a time the overall smartphone market in India is staring at its first ever contraction due to Covid-induced supply chain issues and tightened consumer spending.

This year, Apple will have a wider portfolio of smartphones, which starts from the iPhone SE, priced below Rs 40,000, and goes up till iPhone 12 Pro Max, priced around Rs 1,30,000.