iPhone 11 price: Has Apple learnt its lesson?
Apple has surprised everyone by launching the new iPhone 11 at a price lower than the iPhone XR‘s launch price. In the US, the former is $50 cheaper than the latter, while in India, the difference is more substantial at Rs 12,000.
Last year, the company faced a lot of criticism for exorbitant iPhone prices in India. For instance, the XR’s starting price in the country was more than the XS’ starting price in the US! Somehow, Apple believed that it would rather get away with this strategy because of its so-called premium brand image in India.
But then, the inevitable happened. All three 2018 iPhone models met with a lukewarm response initially, thereby forcing Apple to slash the XR’s prices by up to a substantial Rs 17,000. Even the iPhone XS series has been offered with multiple massive cashback offers since the beginning of 2019.
The signal is clear – most customers have their limits and they won’t always pay ridiculous amount of cash just for the sake of brand value. Worse for Apple, previous year’s iPhones have been under-equipped when compared to their Android rivals – no bundled fast charger, no ultra-wide-angle camera, low-res display (iPhone XR), and so on. Then, the emerging ‘flagship killers’ such as the OnePlus 7, Poco F1 and Redmi K20 Pro provide 90 per cent of the premium smartphone experience at less than 50 per cent of a flagship phone’s price. Now, this forces a user to reconsider buying a reasonably priced flagship phone, leave alone an overpriced iPhone!
And that’s not all. According to a report, the global iPhone loyalty rate – at just 73 per cent – was the lowest in 2019 since 2011. For comparison, it was at its peak in 2017 at 92 per cent. Interestingly, let me remind you that 2017 was when the iPhone X was launched – an iPhone with brand new design and user experience. This clearly indicates that innovations excite the audience. But with the iPhone 11, the same design has yet again been recycled for the third time (with minor revisions, of course).
So, with iPhone popularity dwindling globally, it’s evident that Apple is desperate on regaining its lost market share. Consequently, the more feature-rich iPhone 11 costs lesser than the XR, while the iPhone 11 Pro models are priced on par with their predecessors.
In the US, at $699, the iPhone 11 makes sense for those looking for a powerful and fast phone that does not break the bank. Here in India though, I still believe that Rs 64,900 is a bit on the steeper side, especially when you consider that low-res display, lack of a telephoto camera and no bundled fast charger. However, I’m positive that there will be loads of those special ‘cashback’ offers once the festive season approaches nearby.
So, if you have your heart set on the new iPhone 11, it’s better to wait until the end of October or so as the effective base price of this phone will likely undercut the Rs 60,000 mark!
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