Apple's iPhone sales in India have fallen by up to 30 percent during this year's festive season, including the Dussehra period, according to a report based on retailer accounts, marking a rare setback for the company in one of its fastest-growing markets. Experts now expect Apple's iPhone shipments in India to decline by double digits this year, a reversal for a brand that has built its Indian growth on the festive shopping rush.
For years, the festive season has been the best time to buy an iPhone in India. Discounts on Flipkart and Amazon, bank offers and exchange deals pushed older iPhones into a price range that many first-time buyers could afford. That formula, according to retailers and industry watchers, appears to have broken this year.
Higher prices, fewer discounts and consumers holding on to their existing phones for longer have combined to cool demand at precisely the moment when it usually peaks.
The biggest reason, by most accounts, is price. Soon after launching the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo in September, Apple raised prices on its existing iPhones in India, citing rising memory chip costs. The iPhone 17 went up by nearly 21 percent to Rs 99,900, and the 1TB version of the iPhone Air jumped 41 percent to Rs 2,24,900.
Reports of the price increases vary slightly in detail, with some putting the iPhone 17 increase at 20.5 percent from its launch price of Rs 82,900 for the 256GB variant, but the direction is not in dispute: iPhones in India became significantly more expensive just as the festive season began.
Apple also skipped a base iPhone 18 this year, so there was no new, relatively cheaper model to pull in buyers. With prices already higher, retailers have reportedly pulled back on festive discounts too. Put together, the iPhone that used to sell for around Rs 60,000 during a festive sale has become much harder to find this year.
For a lot of buyers, especially those upgrading from an Android phone or an old iPhone, that price point was the entry into the Apple ecosystem. Its disappearance has left a gap that no current model fills.
The consequences are visible in the numbers. Apple shipped 14.3 million iPhones in India in 2025, according to data from research firm IDC cited in the reports. A double-digit decline in shipments this year would therefore mean a substantial fall in absolute terms, not just a rounding error.
At the same time, Apple still commanded a 27 percent share of India's smartphone market by value in the June 2026 quarter, according to the same IDC data. That distinction matters: a decline in the number of units sold does not automatically translate into a similar decline in value, because buyers who do purchase are increasingly choosing more expensive Pro models.
That shift towards premium models is itself one of the notable trends of this festive season. Industry executives say many users are shifting to Pro models of the iPhone 17 during the festive sales, paying Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 more than for the base model. With the iPhone 18 Pro seeing strong demand, analysts expect the share of Pro models in overall iPhone sales to touch 20 percent in the coming months, up from around 15 percent now.
Some of that demand, however, may reflect the availability of discounts on iPhone 17 Pro models while stocks last, and one retailer cautioned that the real appetite for Pro models will only be known once those stocks run out.
Other buyers are taking a different route. Retailers say some consumers are deferring purchases in the expectation that the iPhone 18 will be launched in February with pricing similar to the iPhone 17. Others are shifting to refurbished and older models, such as the iPhone 16, which offer the Apple experience at a lower price. The second-hand and refurbished market has been growing steadily in India, and higher prices for new models are likely to accelerate that trend.
The iPhone slowdown is part of a wider cooling in the Indian smartphone market. Market researcher Omdia reported that smartphone sales in India fell 26 percent year-on-year to 35.8 million units in the July-September quarter, the worst performance for any July-September period since 2016. The slump hit Chinese and American brands hardest, while Samsung managed to hold up far better than rivals and reclaimed the top spot with 6.7 million units sold and a 19 percent share.
Xiaomi's sales dropped 28 percent to 4.7 million units, Oppo fell 24 percent to 4.9 million, and Vivo sold 6.4 million phones. Apple was not immune: iPhone sales in India fell 20 percent to 3.9 million units in the quarter, as premium buyers also pulled back.
That broader context is important because it suggests the iPhone decline is not solely an Apple story. Households appear to be feeling stretched, delaying upgrades, stretching replacement cycles to three or four years and becoming less responsive to marketing. When inflation squeezes budgets, big-ticket technology purchases are among the first to be postponed.
The festive season, which once reliably unlocked that spending, is no longer enough on its own to overcome price resistance.
For Apple, India remains a strategically vital market. The company has invested heavily in the country, opening its own retail stores, expanding local manufacturing and positioning India as both a major market and a production base. A single weak festive season does not undo that strategy, but it does pose questions about pricing.
If memory chip costs and currency weakness continue to push prices up, Apple will need to find other ways to keep its products within reach of Indian buyers, whether through trade-in programmes, flexible payment options, meaningful product improvements or a return to a more affordable entry-level model.
The coming weeks will help determine whether the Dussehra decline is a temporary seasonal setback or part of a more sustained slowdown. Diwali, which falls later in the festive calendar, traditionally drives a further wave of purchases, and stronger demand during Diwali, better availability of premium models and attractive financing could soften the blow.
The full-year shipment outcome, however, remains uncertain, and much will depend on pricing, availability and consumer spending in the final quarter of the year.
There is also a competitive dimension. Samsung's resilience in the third quarter shows that buyers are still willing to spend, but are choosing carefully. Brands that offer clear value at accessible prices, or that support their premium models with strong offers, are holding up better than those that simply raise prices.
Apple's challenge is to convince Indian buyers that the premium it charges is justified, at a time when the gap between the cheapest iPhone and the most affordable Android flagship has widened considerably.
For now, the reported 30 percent festive decline is a warning sign rather than a final verdict on Apple's year in India. It shows that even the world's most valuable company cannot ignore price sensitivity in a market where the festive sale has traditionally been the great equaliser. Whether Apple responds with pricing adjustments, new models or stronger offers will shape not only its own fortunes but the broader premium smartphone market in India in the months ahead.
(Reporting based on Moneycontrol via Gizbot and NewsBytes.)