Selling a kidney in India pays a little over Rs 1 lakh, and that is almost exactly how much an iPhone XS Max would cost when it is available in India. Apple announced 3 new iPhones last week — iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. XS is priced at just under Rs 1 lakh and XS Max a little over Rs 1 lakh, with XR being the most affordable of the three starting from Rs 76,900.
But it’s not just Indians who are contemplating selling their kidneys to buy a phone one-third the price of a compact car. The uproar is in the United States as well over the phones that most would have to pay through EMIs. So much so that Apple CEO Tim Cook had to appear on ABC TV’s “Good Morning America” to defend the high prices.
Cook told ABC News,
“The phone has replaced your digital camera. You don’t have a separate one anymore. It’s replaced your video camera, music player. It’s replaced all of these different devices.”
According to Cook, the new iPhones are the ‘most advanced’ the company has ever produced and can replace every other gadget a customer might need. And innovative products don’t come cheap.
In short, iPhones boast of features that most DSLR cameras have. Although many DSLR cameras like Nikon D5300 and Canon EOS 200D are priced at near half as much what iPhone XS Max costs in India.
Cook asserted that Apple wanted to make phones for everybody by saying that the costs come down when customers do deals with phone carriers:
“If you look at phones that are priced over $1,000, most people pay about $30 a month which is around $1 a day.”
According to a price analysis of iPhone X by IHS Markit last year, it costs a little over Rs 25,000 to manufacture its 64GB version. However, it is sold for around Rs 90,000 in India.
The new iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max are slated to launch in India on September 28
