iPhone 12 Pro so expensive in India that you can fly to Dubai to buy it, come back, and still save money

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Huh, that's quite the difference.

Does India have things like VAT and what not?

They’ve got a whacking big imported luxury item tax, which apparently Apple products are still getting hit with.

[RedRound2]

My god, this again. What are you, a 5 year old?

 

7 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

India has luxury taxes on all the phones, why does Samsung Note 20 Ultra is just 1400$ in India 200$ more than the rest of the world but Iphone 12 is 600$ more? 

Note20 is manufactured in India, that's why it is cheaper

https://www.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/samsung-confident-that-galaxy-note-20-series-will-do-well-in-india-11597152463490.html

 

Many phones are manufactured here locally for local customers to avoid taxes. The thing is, it is possible and quite easy to manufacturer these phones in enough volumes.

 

Apple hasn't started manufacturing in India and is currently importing fulling put together phones from China. They can only start by mid 2021 and by then you can expect the prices to reduce

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/iphone-12-made-in-india-launch-mid-2021-apple-narasapura-plant-6561119/#:~:text=The new 'Made in India,Apple's Taiwanese contract manufacturer%2C Wistron.

 

And it's not really easy for companies, especially like Apple, who orders custom components for all their devices to manufacturer in a land with pretty much no manufacturing infrastructure and skill. Commodity components will be realtively easy because most android phones share the same set of components.

 

Blame your damn government for these ridiculous and short sighted policies that is hampering the growth.

[AdminPixel]

There are a few things OP and the  others here may not know. the Apple Tax in India generally appears to go through  the roof because of the 200% import Tax they put on electronics here. That is done because there is a huge demand for these products in India and the country wants them manufactured here, not built  for cheap in China and flooding the market, killing local jobs (or rather, not allowing for the creation of a local manufacture base). Apple has always been hardest hit by this and that is the reason they opened a small manufacture base in South India a couple of years ago.

 

Samsung, Xiaomi and some other big names have their largest plants in India for this very reason, Samsung having set up the world's largest plant here to pump out phones for selling locally and export.

 

Apple's golden boy suppliers Foxcon, Wistron and Pegatron have recently filed for provisions with the Indian government to open large manufacture bases for iPhones here.

 

https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/tech-news/top-three-apple-suppliers-to-invest-up-to-900-million-dollars-in-india

Quote

The top three suppliers of Apple devices in India – Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron – plan to invest $900 million (Rs 6,645 crore approx) in India in the next five years, a Reuters report said.

The move is being pushed to utilise India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) plan, where manufacturers get economic concessions from the government for the increase in sales of locally manufactured products.

The scheme aims to transform India into a manufacturing powerhouse.

Earlier, Foxconn has already announced that it will be investing about $452 (Rs 40 billion approx) in India while Wistron and Pegatron have committed to invest close to 13 billion rupees and 12 billion rupees, respectively, under the PLI plan, the report said.

 

The new iPhone 12 is not made in India and is still overpriced for this same reason.

But it seems the production will only commence next year.

 

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/iphone-12-will-be-made-in-india-as-apple-supplier-hires-10-000-local-employees-for-production-1712777-2020-08-19

Quote

Wistron, Apple’s Taiwanese manufacturer, has started the hiring processes for the local production of iPhone 12 components in India. The Made in India iPhone 12 will be out by the middle of next year, a report by Business Standard stated. Wistron has planned to invest over 2,900 crores in India to ramp up the efforts for the local production of iPhones.

 

The setup for iPhone production at the Narasapura plant is located in Kolar district, about 70 km from Bengaluru, New Indian Express noted. Wistron was allotted 43 acres by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) when it announced its plans for production in 2017. As per the report, the manufacturing company at Kolar is supposed to generate 10,000 jobs. Wistron has already hired 2,000 locals.

 

Sources familiar with the matter told the New Indian Express that the hiring will take place in a phased manner. As of now, walk-in interviews of diploma graduates are being conducted. More interviews with experienced people, as well as freshers, will be held soon. Wistron has started trial production and by September it will start the commercial production of iPhones in Kolar.

 

It is not clear which product will be assembled in the manufacturing unit. However, reports in the past have stated that Wistron’s manufacturing units at its new plant in southern India will assemble printed circuit boards (PCBs) for iPhones.

 

Another problem in the pas has been that for a lot of manufacturers in India, it is not enough to just assemble the product in the country. Even the component supply needs to be localized or they'll be hit with Tariffs.

 

TL;DR -

 

Indians still need extra kidneys to buy  the iPhone 12... But by next year, maybe only part of a liver!

 

Hope this brings some context to the absolutely lousy pricing that continues to plague iPhones (and other things Apple) in India.

[Vector0102]

12 hours ago, Senzelian said:

How much does a Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a cost in india?

the 4a is about 30k INR not sure about the 5

[Vector0102]

Again its because of the supply chain, things which are manufactured locally dont have extravagant taxes on them. Imported items do. As much as I hate the iPhone pricing here, its not something Apple does.

[Chiyawa]

12 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Huh, that's quite the difference.

Does India have things like VAT and what not?

As far as I know, like Malaysia, the price in India usually includes VAT or SST. I'm not sure how much India was charged, but in Malaysia, it will be the base price found in Amazon or many retail sites + Import duty (about 10%) + SST (6%). This also varies for different products as well.

[Tenelia]

12 hours ago, RejZoR said:

It's so hilarious people yet again going like "omg greedy Apple" yet it's the India smacking ridiculous "luxury" taxes on tech products making them absurdly expensive. Yet everyone rushes to piss on Apple because you're not cool if you're not endlessly pissing on Apple these days. How old are you all, 8 ?

It's not the first time that the OP has posted such threads or made such comments... This is simply drama for the sake of serving self-righteousness. Again, if the market truly does not want the iPhone, consumers would simply purchase competitor devices. Many other manufacturers produce devices at far lower price points. Most android users would even claim that android phones are superior in terms of hardware and software customization.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Wait, haven't we been through this?

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

5 hours ago, RedRound2 said:

And it's not really easy for companies, especially like Apple, who orders custom components for all their devices to manufacturer in a land with pretty much no manufacturing infrastructure and skill. Commodity components will be realtively easy because most android phones share the same set of components.

 

Blame your damn government for these ridiculous and short sighted policies that is hampering the growth.

Samsung was just an example, you act like every phone company in India manufactures them in India so its cheap, name a phone, i'll tell you what the prices are here and you can compare them, now do the same with Apple, what sort of Fantasy is Apple living in that they are the only company here in India that is having this magical tax and import  issue? 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

39 minutes ago, Tenelia said:

It's not the first time that the OP has posted such threads or made such comments... This is simply drama for the sake of serving self-righteousness. Again, if the market truly does not want the iPhone, consumers would simply purchase competitor devices. Many other manufacturers produce devices at far lower price points. Most android users would even claim that android phones are superior in terms of hardware and software customization.

I didn't write the article which i copy paste its header from word for word, but hey you gotta say something right? 

[RedRound2]

3 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

Samsung was just an example, you act like every phone company in India manufactures them in India so its cheap, name a phone, i'll tell you what the prices are here and you can compare them, now do the same with Apple, what sort of Fantasy is Apple living in that they are the only company here in India that is having this magical tax and import issue? 

Apple gets subjected to luxary tax becasue none of their phones are below a certain price segment. The phones that do flood the indian market are mostly chinese phones nad they usually have some partner here for local manufacturing, especially since most chinese phone makers come under one or two groups

 

Samsung also has a good foothold here in manufacturing. Apple does not. Pixel 3 and 4 was notoriously overpriced here that they forgoed Pixel 5 launch in india. 

 

And, what did I tell you about commodity items here. Apple uses custom components from PCB to every screws and it will take time and effort to replicate their entire supply chain in a country that has no infrastructure whatsoever for these sort of things

 

C'mon your logic of Apple trying to squeeze out more profits from one of the poorer nation conspiracy theory (and in effect hindering any growth in a place with the largest potential growth) is the dumbest theory I've heard. Give me a break. It's more like you want to act like a cool kid to hate on Apple. 

 

Japan has the cheapest iPhones but Apple doesn't make things in Japan. Why they just like japanese people more than indians?

 

Even the article you've been quoting agreed that it's due to India's ridiculous and exorbiant taxes but noo you are just looking for reasons to waste everybody's time trying with nonsense and misdirected posts like this

[CTR640]

Lol at the topic title, I find it more entertaining than the actual article.

 

And people, it's not Apple doing this, it's the fucking governments fucking over its citizens.

[AG1233]

18 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

India got rid of VAT and switched to GST, didn't help the common man except increase the prices of all equally. 

You have to pay three things on import of a mobile phone at least, Custom Duties & Taxes, Cess and GST on top of that 

 

Bro idk if you are ignoring things cause I would guess a majority of people who follow the tech news at least know that any imported luxury product is taxed to hell in India. Also considering the import duties and taxes on mobile phones were revised on March this year and considering Apple are not producing their flagship in India yet, this is literally expected how much disappointing and infuriating it may be. 

 

You made me log back in just to reply to this because you are trying to paint a different picture compared to how things actually are.

[NotTheFirstDaniel]

Aren't things that are imported to India a lot more expensive than the rest of the world? Because, if you payed attention, when they did start iPhone 11 production in India, the price was actually in line with the rest of the world...

 

The iPhone 11 started at ₹ 49,999, which was in line with the price in the US, and no, that's not because of the recession, the Rupee to USD conversion amount has been about the same for the past year and a bit. What do you think will happen to the price of the iPhone 12 when production also starts in India?

 

A couple of weeks ago, you posted something similar to this, blaming Apple for I think the price of the Mac Pro? Now, the Mac Pro is an expensive PC for many reasons, none of which I'll get into right now,  but it's also not manufactured in India. That means it has to be imported, and get taxed for importation due to your greedy government. Why would Apple genuinely price a device higher in a generally poorer country? Because they think it will sell like hotcakes? Does that make any logical sense what-so-ever? 

[kpluck]

20 hours ago, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/features/story/iphone-12-pro-so-expensive-in-india-that-you-can-fly-to-dubai-to-buy-it-come-back-and-still-save-money-1733722-2020-10-21

 

I am curious why you left out this part of the article…

Quote

 

Now, considering that the world is battling coronavirus pandemic and the virus is in no mood to slow down, we do not encourage anyone to travel. The whole idea was to not send you to Dubai but to draw your attention towards Apple’s exorbitant pricing in India. It is no secret that the taxes and duties that are applied to imported phones are highest in India. The taxes are so high that for an important iPhone that you will end up paying an average tax of Rs 24,000 for something like an iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Mini.
 

However, despite the sky-rocketing prices, iPhone still sells best in India and the buyers give whatever price Apple asks them to pay. So for a business, that is not a bad deal at all.

 

 

The fact of the matter is Apple's prices in India are directly caused by the policies of the Indian government. Apple is required to source some of its components from India and the supply is just not available. Other phones with cheaper, lower quality parts or parts that are older technology don't face this problem.

 

-kp

[Justaphysicsnerd]

It ain't just the iphones, every PC component is much more expensive in India than in USA. I don't see how a 1000USD translates to a 100,000 INR PC Build when the conversion rate is like 73 INR for 1 USD. I know there will be some taxes and import duties, but that doesn't mean that you pay 40% taxes ! We need to like start a petition or something

21 hours ago, Senzelian said:

How much does a Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a cost in india?

400-405 USD not much of a difference, but the problem is Google only has 1 online distributor in the whole freaking country and hence the stock is Sold out more often than not

 

21 hours ago, RejZoR said:

it's the India smacking ridiculous "luxury" taxes on tech products making them absurdly expensive

That is True ! The Government doesn't want us to buy foreign goods and the current government is kinda like fascists, who want people to buy MADE IN INDIA ^TM Goods, but they aren't helping tech companies in that matter at all

 

21 hours ago, Xaeha said:

Is India's economy bad?

If you mean by bad that the market is slowly just going to be a Duopoly or just 3 mega corporations  (Tata Group of Industries vs Reliance Industries) then yeah sure !

PS: @Senzelian most Indian Phone owners, buy a phone not to make call or for important stuff but to flex.....about........there cameras. I don't understand if you want a camera why not get a proper camera ? And BTW most of the so called Indian Tech Reviewers don't even disclose if a video is sponsored and they sometimes title their sponsored videos as REVIEWS.

[Justaphysicsnerd]

13 hours ago, AdminPixel said:

there is a huge demand for these products in India

the R34l Indian, who doesn't even have a proper shelter would like to know your location. 

Just kidding

I mean yeah sort of, most of the Indians though still rely on cheap phones and in many regions of the country having a touchscreen capable device is considered a luxury of sorts. So, in short its a bit of fault of apple and a lot to do with the government's fault, since they only opened the economy to globalization in 2004-2005 and also they f***** the economy pretty bad

[Justaphysicsnerd]

8 hours ago, Tenelia said:

if the market truly does not want the iPhone, consumers would simply purchase competitor devices

that is true, most of the consumers are happy buying Oppo or Vivo or I don't know some other competitor's cheaper smartphones, because most of these companies try to make knock-offs or look-alikes to "the big red juicy bitten fruit's" flagship. Like around the time the Iphone 10 was launched there were already knockoffs from these brands within a month !

[GoodBytes]

As mentioned, this is one of the few times that it's not Apple.

In this case it is India. Right now, the country has elected an extreme nationalist government, with an "India first" (wait... that sounds familiar) mandate. You have heavy taxes on products coming from the outside. The country's economics is in shambles, they are facing a "mega-recession" if you will. Already the country economy wasn't so hot before the pandemic, now it falls apart with a negative GDP of over ~24% (projected) by the end of the year. Also, in India, you have a large gap between rich and poor. While you have a growing middle class (well, before the current economic situation), you had a lot of ultra-poor and ultra-rich people.

 

So of course, luxury products, and product coming from the outside will cost a fortune.

 

Brazil has this same problem; you can look at gaming consoles. A game consoles cost ~650% over US pricing. This is because of the government there putting taxes on imports. The product must be made in the country to not suffer such tax.

 

 

[soldier_ph]

Apple can sell their Devices at any cost they want, people will buy it no matter what.

[Techie5879]

Its not just Apple stuff man, every tech here is expensive and costs 20-30% more than its counterparts in the US. Laptops, phones, whatever, though there are a few budget phones here that aren't available elsewhere but the premium stuff is priced wayy higher.

 

I'm just waiting to see what the RTX 3080 costs here lmao its gonna be ridiculous

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, Techie5879 said:

Its not just Apple stuff man, every tech here is expensive and costs 20-30% more than its counterparts in the US. Laptops, phones, whatever, though there are a few budget phones here that aren't available elsewhere but the premium stuff is priced wayy higher.

 

I'm just waiting to see what the RTX 3080 costs here lmao its gonna be ridiculous

Likely.

[HumdrumPenguin]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:56 PM, Spotty said:

If you do not like the price of the iPhone but are satisfied with the pricing of competing products then simply buy the other phones. No one needs an iPhone

And what makes you think other flagship phones are affordable there? As long as there are people buying, prices will be driven up constantly. He's frustration is probably due to wanting a product that others can afford with much less sacrifice (if any) in other countries. Here in Canada, if you get a 50 dollars plan on Freedom and stick to it for 2 years, they will give you either an iPhone 11 or a Galaxy S20 FE (the choice is yours) for no extra cost. And it's not even a shitty plan. 10gbs of data (20gb if switching from other carrier) + unlimited calls and text within Canada and US.

[RejZoR]

3 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

And what makes you think other flagship phones are affordable there? As long as there are people buying, prices will be driven up constantly. He's frustration is probably due to wanting a product that others can afford with much less sacrifice (if any) in other countries. Here in Canada, if you get a 50 dollars plan on Freedom and stick to it for 2 years, they will give you either an iPhone 11 or a Galaxy S20 FE (the choice is yours) for no extra cost. And it's not even a shitty plan. 10gbs of data (20gb if switching from other carrier) + unlimited calls and text within Canada and US.

Until you realize some like me can have a no contract plan with 3000 minutes, 3000 SMS and 35GB of data for 9,99€. I just don't bother with carriers contracts coz they are all rippoffs and no discounts or payment options are worthy of them. I just buy phones in retail and stick with this cheap plan. Coz every time I was looking at subsidized phones, the requirement to actually get those discounts was to have something stupid as 50€ a month plan. Like fuck that, you're giving me 200€ discount on a flagship just so you rip me off for 30€ every month. And you force me to tie in for 24 months. Haha, no. Here, if I don't like it, I can cancel the plan today with zero penalties. But I don't want to coz it's great.

[HumdrumPenguin]

2 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Until you realize some like me can have a no contract plan with 3000 minutes, 3000 SMS and 35GB of data for 9,99€. I just don't bother with carriers contracts coz they are all rippoffs and no discounts or payment options are worthy of them. I just buy phones in retail and stick with this cheap plan. Coz every time I was looking at subsidized phones, the requirement to actually get those discounts was to have something stupid as 50€ a month plan. Like fuck that, you're giving me 200€ discount on a flagship just so you rip me off for 30€ every month. And you force me to tie in for 24 months. Haha, no. Here, if I don't like it, I can cancel the plan today with zero penalties. But I don't want to coz it's great.

In your case, yeah, totally agree with you, but plans are not cheap in Canada and America if compared to Europe and Asia.