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

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

And what makes you think other flagship phones are affordable there?

The post I was replying to said as much. They said Apple's phones were overpriced and that other phones available were not overpriced. "as other phones are priced fairly."

If they think that the other phones are priced fairly they should buy them instead of the iPhone, which they feel is not priced fairly.

 

4 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

Here in Canada, if you get a 50 dollars plan...

India's phone plans are vastly different to the rest of the world. They're insanely cheap. So cheap that major providers in India are planning on raising prices 10 fold.
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1238855-india-is-going-to-get-10x-price-hike-for-cellular-data/

It's currently common to pay around 60c per month for calls/text plan, or around $2 to $3 per month for unlimited calls + 1GB daily data limit. I don't think India has the concept of paying $50/month for a phone plan and getting a 'free' device with it. I could be wrong, but given how cheap their phone plans are I can't imagine it being successful there.

 

[RejZoR]

9 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

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

Competitor's plan has even crazier plan for 10€, especially for those who value data more than calls and SMS. It's 100 minutes, 100 SMS and 100GB for 10€. They do have a bit slower LTE on purpose, but it's probably not terribly inconvenient. When i first pick my plan it had 3000 calls, 3000 SMS and 3000 MB. And thanks to magic of competition, it evolved from 3GB  to 35GB. Dunno why literally all other carrier plans start at 25€ no matter what they offer. And often they are way crappier than mine. Who buys that?!

[HumdrumPenguin]

1 minute ago, RejZoR said:

 Who buys that?!

People with either too much money, or with not so many expenses (as when you live in with your parents). They may be looking for a company with potentially stronger and consistent signal, and better coverage. My colleague at work pays CAD108 on his plan (Rogers). That's nuts in my opinion, but he just doesn't care because he lives with his parents and don't even worry about groceries or rent/mortgage (or buy expensive computer parts, because oh well, we all need it).

[Vector0102]

5 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Just wondering, since I don't follow your economy, was it always that much or did it increase when the 5 came out?  As I've seen that happen before.

its the same from the start 30k INR

[Sauron]

"but import taxes"

...they're not importing.

"but luxury taxes"

...other phones have a much lower markup despite being overall more expensive.

On 10/22/2020 at 10:56 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

Indeed, just don't buy iPhones. Ever.

 

But also let's not pretend this is anything other than Apple being greedy.

[RejZoR]

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

"but import taxes"

...they're not importing.

"but luxury taxes"

...other phones have a much lower markup despite being overall more expensive.

Indeed, just don't buy iPhones. Ever.

 

But also let's not pretend this is anything other than Apple being greedy.

And buy what? Samsung with its actually higher price tag than iPhones? Realme that churns out cheap phones with decent specs pretty much weekly and it's a miracle if you ever get any support for any of them. OnePlus that isn't sure what it even wants to be? What? Or iPhone that despite all the whining people do, actually "just works", has good balance of components and offers industry leading software support that you always receive instantly and not months after it gets announced like with ALL Androids. Unless you go with Pixel. Which still has just sad 3 years of support and its only bright spot is the camera. The rest is rather sad given they sell it for 699€ (coz $=€). Yeah, I'm just gonna take an iPhone. It's a well rounded package with very little things I can complain about. But Android fanboys just can't stop staring at specs and price tag all day long like that's all it matters. Guess what, it doesn't.

[Tristerin]

In other news - Consumers will still purchase it at these costs and Apple will continue to thrive

[Blademaster91]

The Samsung costs more so taxes should be higher, or are higher taxes on the iphone because Apple has a factory in India?

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

The Samsung costs more so taxes should be higher, or are higher taxes on the iphone because Apple has a factory in India?

Someone said that while they have a factory it isn’t online yet or something. 

[G9XFTW]

Some folks I know are getting it from DUBAI. You get international warranty apparently.

 The pricing is so Apple.

[Sauron]

47 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Or iPhone that despite all the whining people do, actually "just works"

I can buy 4 cheap phones over the course of years for the price of an iphone. The last cheap phone I bought is still going strong 5 years later. iPhones have had dozens of design flaws and critical bugs over that time period. The idea that you get a more reliable experience is just a myth and even if that were the case, again, you can replace your phone multiple times before you wallet gets shafted as much as it would by buying an iphone.

[RejZoR]

22 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

In other news - Consumers will still purchase it at these costs and Apple will continue to thrive

You make it sound like Samsung or any other smartphone brand don't. That only Apple has this outlandish prices and only they are thriving. Which is total bull. Apple's prices aren't even that ridiculous. Sure if you just look at the spec sheet and price and declare it's expensive for what it's listed on spec sheet, then fine. But as whole experience, it's something probably very few Android makers can even match. And I'm saying this after being on Android since Eiclar to Pie and am now on iOS from 12 to 14. Between 900€ iPhone 12 and 900€ Galaxy S20, I'd pick iPhone any time if I'm honest. The Samsung's "3 years of updates, we pinky promise" is worth next to nothing given they can't even openly declare which models will have those 3 years guaranteed and their track record is shit. It's all so vague and when you're paying 900€ for a phone, I damn well want to know if I'm getting updates or not. There is no such mystery with any iPhone. And I just can't stand the fact Samsung sells us Europeans their inferior Exynos for same price as rest of the world gets superior Snapdragon. That's some next level bullcrap and I don't see any outrage on level people have with Apple non stop for far more petty things.

[Tristerin]

3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

-snip-

 

My point was that consumers allow these trends, nothing more or less.

 

My brother gets all the latest apple tech, its amazing what it can do.  Whatever is the latest greatest phone is the one he has and the camera/video is insanely nice. 

 

EDIT - heck my wife has an iPhone but I dont know which because Im not interested.  My personal smart phone was produced in 2012.  I dont upgrade something that works

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

4 hours ago, Spotty said:

major providers in India are planning on raising prices 10 fold.
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1238855-india-is-going-to-get-10x-price-hike-for-cellular-data/

It's currently common to pay around 60c per month for calls/text plan, or around $2 to $3 per month for unlimited calls + 1GB daily data limit. I don't think India has the concept of paying $50/month for a phone plan and getting a 'free' device with it. I could be wrong, but given how cheap their phone plans are I can't imagine it being successful there.

it ain't happening, Airtel will shutshop a week after that plan is introduced as Indian govt allows to ppl to PORT to a different network with the same phone number, that was basically what happened when a company called jio started giving ppl a GB per day rather than a GB per whole month and everyone and their dog ported their number which prompted other network companies like vodafone/airtel to offer the same plans, but what did happen last year was everyone decided to increase the price at the same time, was basically network mafia. 

[RejZoR]

Just now, Tristerin said:

 

My point was that consumers allow these trends, nothing more or less.

 

My brother gets all the latest apple tech, its amazing what it can do.  Whatever is the latest greatest phone is the one he has and the camera/video is insanely nice. 

The thing is, with iPhone, you're not really under pressure to buy new one. I've gone through 2 new iPhone launches and while I thought "that's nice" both times, I actually like my iPhone XR. It's fast, it has really nice image, banging sound, battery lasts really long for my needs, makes amazing photos and while it didn't get night mode for camera officially, I could ad it using NeuralCam app which uses neural unit in the chipset to create bright and sharp night photos. On top of that timely updates are just sublime. Android users just can't fathom how you see news about new update and you can get it right away. For 5 years! I absolutely hated with Android how Google announced new version of Android and then it took months to receive it on Samsung or Huawei or whatever. And often you just didn't get it at all because vendor's best interest is to sell you a new device. Apple doesn't follow that mentality and it shows. I'm sticking with 2 years old phone and I love it.

[Fnige]

17 hours ago, valdyrgramr said:

So, apparently th 4a just got there and the 5 isn't out.   This is how little I follow the pixel.

I dont think they have launched the 5 at all for india. I could be wrong though

[yian88]

Apple and iphones are for idiots, tech illeterates, just because you can use email and tik tok on your 2000$ iShitphone doesnt mean you are tech literate, you need to understand how it works under the hood and value for money.

You dont really need more than 200-500$ phone ever, the rest you pay for apple premium tax is basically just like buying luxury, its 10-20% better and 5x more expensive, do you really need a beach house in dubai that costs 5mil$? no you can buy a beach house in spain, or greece, or any USA state that has one for as little as 100k$.

[Mooshi]

Imagine still being hyped up by iPhones.

[Commodus]

6 hours ago, yian88 said:

Apple and iphones are for idiots, tech illeterates, just because you can use email and tik tok on your 2000$ iShitphone doesnt mean you are tech literate, you need to understand how it works under the hood and value for money.

You dont really need more than 200-500$ phone ever, the rest you pay for apple premium tax is basically just like buying luxury, its 10-20% better and 5x more expensive, do you really need a beach house in dubai that costs 5mil$? no you can buy a beach house in spain, or greece, or any USA state that has one for as little as 100k$.

No, you don't need more than a no-frills smartphone, but here's the thing: people are allowed to buy things simply because they want them. I bought my iPhone XS because I wanted a great camera, a nice display, brisk performance, years of timely updates and tight integration with devices like the Apple Watch. I could've bought a mid-range OnePlus or Pixel phone, but I probably wouldn't be as happy with it. "10-20% better" is sometimes true, but I would very much disagree here — it's just a question of whether or not you can find the value.

 

Also, why the hell should you need to be tech literate to use a product? A device should be easy enough to use that you can focus on what you'll accomplish with it, not figuring it out or maintaining it. And just because you prefer easy to use doesn't make you an idiot; it often means you have different priorities in life. A doctor or scientist who uses an iPhone is still an intelligent person, they'd just rather improve humanity's condition than spend hours tweaking Android launchers.

 

I never quite get why some people have an almost masochistic approach to tech, where you're only a 'real' enthusiast if your devices are unnecessarily complicated or appeal to tinkerers. "Oh, make it harder to use, baby, harder! Less intuitive! Make me spend hours getting it to work properly!"

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, valdyrgramr said:

Android phones do have nice cameras, nice displays, brisk performance, years of updates[my dad's s7 is still getting updates], and they do have good integration with plenty of devices.   That doesn't mean you can't like your phone, but eh ya that's not exclusive to it.

Oh, I know you can get some good Android phones — I'm just dismantling yian88's claim that you're somehow making a terrible mistake by buying anything other than a "good enough" phone.

 

(I'd also note that Android is only just getting to three years of updates, and they're rarely timely.)

[Brooksie359]

On 10/22/2020 at 3:36 PM, Rohith_Kumar_Sp said:

which is why i don't buy the argument "india adds luxury tax so don't blame apple" argument as other phones are priced fairly. 

Asus ROG 2 was priced 542$  https://gadgets.ndtv.com/asus-rog-phone-5496#:~:text=Asus ROG Phone price in India starts from ₹ 26%2C499,Flipkart on 22nd October 2020.

which was $ 669 phone in USA 

Let's be honest there is no way they would put a luxury tax on the rog 2 phone. It would be a disgrace to call that a luxury phone. I would like to point out that while the rog 2 phone may be priced at a normal price most hardware isn't in India almost across the board so part of me thinks that there maybe some forces at work that cause this rather than the world collectively deciding to price things higher in India. 

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Brooksie359 said:

Let's be honest there is no way they would put a luxury tax on the rog 2 phone. It would be a disgrace to call that a luxury phone. I would like to point out that while the rog 2 phone may be priced at a normal price most hardware isn't in India almost across the board so part of me thinks that there maybe some forces at work that cause this rather than the world collectively deciding to price things higher in India. 

I suspect It’s an import tax with a bunch of exemptions.  I don’t know the details though. 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

38 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Let's be honest there is no way they would put a luxury tax on the rog 2 phone. It would be a disgrace to call that a luxury phone.

and the govt also considers sanitary pads luxury, your point makes no sense. 

[DemonAtBudget]

Im late but here are my 3 cents.

Customs and Taxes on electronics are so high for 2 reasons I think.

One, being encouraging companies to start manufacturing In India.

Other, is that government needs money to run country, it doesn't go up or down depending on people paying taxes. Only 2-3% population pays taxes. Thats why its that high. Also there is a political factor that i'll not speak

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

You're just going to get charged the tax when you enter back into the country... Just another clickbait title targeting Apple. Is this forum becoming CNN now?