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Even as Tim Cook says Apple is focussing on India for the long term, it’s facing consumer heat given high costs of iPhone 6S and 6S Plus


Not only consumers but even Apple is quite unhappy about the pricing of its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which launched in India on October 16.

The high cost of the phones, given foreign exchange fluctuations, have had an impact on their sales.

However, Apple said it wants to make long term investments in the country.

A reason why, the impact of the high costs of the new models and their harsh impact on demand is being viewed seriously by the company top brass. "We've adjusted some prices around the world for the launch of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus... Obviously when we increase prices around the world, it's normal to see some impact on sales rates," Apple's CFO told ET.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are available in India between Rs 62,000 and Rs 92,000 depending on memory and model.

This pricing is nearly Rs 9, 000 more than the last year's launch price of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and also Rs 14,000-16,000 costlier than their prices in global markets.

So why are the prices surging? Experts say it is due to two reasons, firstly due to depreciation of the rupee against dollar and higher tax, with imported smartphones attracting 11.5% more tax than locally assembled ones while this difference was just 5% last year.

But Apple has long-term investment plans in India. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was investing for the long term in a few markets like India where factors like currency were "transitional kind of thing". "I was really impressed last quarter with our progress in Vietnam and Indonesia and India among others," he said.

Meanwhile, as per Apple, iPhone sales in South Asia, including India, during the July-September quarter was up by 35%.

This push was mainly due to festive sale season.

However, last year's sales cannot be compared because some retailers say that this time there was around 20% lower demand compared with last year's demand for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Cook said the company achieved this despite "very strong headwinds" from foreign exchange rates. Apple also posted largest absolute revenue growth ever, growing by 28% at $234 billion, or about Rs 15,18,000 crore.
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