Apple likely to sell its iPhone 5S for Rs.15000

The Cupertino, California-based company will likely price the four-year-old iPhone 5s around Rs 15,000 apiece as part of an online-exclusive retailing strategy, which aims to secure for the world’s most valuable corporate a beachhead in India’s mid-priced smartphone market that is dominated by Chinese manufacturers and Samsung.

Three senior industry executives said that the company’s distributors have already informed the brick-and-mortar cellphone stores that iPhone 5s supplies will be eased out, and that the model would be sold only online - at an aggressive price point.

The iPhone SE will become the entry handset for offline retail in India for Apple, carrying a price tag of Rs 20,000, they said. The iPhone 5s currently sells at Rs 18,000.

One of the executive said, "Apple wanted to have one iPhone model with an aggressive pricing in India and was banking on the company-certified refurbished models. But now that the proposal has been struck down by the government, it is betting on the iPhone 5s."

Another executive said the move will also help Apple continue the high pace of growth in India since iPhone sales typically start flattening out from around May-June until the launch of new models around October. Online sales account for 50-55% of iPhone sales in India, compared with about 30% for the industry.

Counterpoint Research associate director Tarun Pathak said placing iPhone 5s as online exclusive makes sense for Apple, considering that the mid-end smartphone segment is the fastest growing in India.

Another executive said Apple wants a larger pie of the Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 segment and iPhone SE too will operate in that price bracket in phases through cashback offers.

HE said, "The company will have a 10-12% pricing advantage for iPhone SE once it starts assembling it in India by next month."