Roger Fingas
Apple has reportedly introduced an international warranty for iPhone buyers living in India, letting them get an iPhone outside the country and still receive support at home.
The main catch is that iPhones must be factory unlocked, rather than bought through a carrier and forcibly unlocked afterwards, according to the Hindustan Times. The second option would potentially be cheaper, since some carriers sell phones for less upfront in exchange for long-term fees.
Sources for the Times indicated that Apple actually implemented the change a few weeks ago, but hasn't highlighted it in any of its terms and conditions.
Apple controls a small fraction of the Indian smartphone market— largely because iPhones are beyond the price range of most people. About 70 percent of smartphones sold in the country cost less than $150, cheaper even than locally-made versions of the iPhone SE.
The switch may be meant to help Indian buyers of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X. The X in particular is likely to be hard to find, given intense preorder demand and several reports pointing to production bottlenecks caused by the phone's TrueDepth camera. Apple has denied rumors that it allowed lower accuracy in the camera to smooth out manufacturing.
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2 Comments
This is great news. Apple should have probably done this before.
Given that Apple doesn't have a retail presence in India and work through authorized resellers, this will help Indian customers who wish to buy Apple products at competitive (read, U.S) prices. The only other option right now is to wait for offers from these resellers. I got an iPhone 6 in February and MacBook Air 2017 last week and in both cases would have preferred purchasing newer products in the U.S and having them shipped here or sent through a friend or relative. The absence of the international warranty was the deal killer.
Let's hope they extend it to other products, too.
Atleast one in three premium mobile phone users in India own an iPhone. However it won't show up in Apple's Indian sales, because most Indians buy their iPhones from abroad, mostly from UAE or from US.
There are no carrier subsidies, and the prices are 30% higher than in the US, due to customs duties and taxes.
The $999 iPhone X costs 89,000 INR which equals $1375. Similar is the case of the $1149 iPhone X which cost $1575 in India.
The lack of an international warranty was the only incentive buyers had for buying the phone in India itself.
Most other phone companies have some manufacturing arrangements making the prices here comparable to that of the Middle East and US.