Apple increases iPhone prices by steep 29%

Apple has increased prices of iPhones in India. The surprise revisionin retail prices comes at a time when the company's new device SE got a poor response and managed to sell onlya few thousand units.

And, the hike is as steep as 29% for the iPhone 6 device. Sources said Apple decided to withdraw some of the discounts offered in January-March 2016 period.

"It was felt that SE, which was criticized for having a 'high price tag', will not be able to see much traction if prices of bigger-sized iPhone 6 and 6S devices are not corrected.

So, the decision was taken torevise the price upwards," a source said.While 16GB version of 4-inchiPhone SE made its debut at Rs 39,000, a similar specked (16GB) version ofiPhone 6is available at Rs 31,000 and 6S at Rs 40,500.

"After the revision, iPhone 6 costs Rs 40,000 and 6S comes for Rs 48,000. We are trying to build a healthybuffer," the source added.

The company also decided to tinker with pricing of iPhone 5S, making it costlier by 22% to nearly Rs 22,000 against Rs 18,000 at present. Apple has also come out with corporate offers and EMI plansto push sales.

Apple recently held a meeting with top executives and key distributors in India, especially in view of the launch of SE.

"The stock of SE was in any case kept at a low level," a source said. "A strategy is being worked out to pitch the device more effectively."A potential source of worry for Apple could be a good response to Samsung forGalaxy S7andS7 Edge smartphones.

After launching in March, Samsung managed to sell nearly twice the numbers achieved by the previous-generation models in the same period.

"Another problem for SE in India is the small screen size. Indians are increasingly buying larger screen-sized phones, even at the lower-end of the market. A lot of data is consumed on smart devices and smaller ones do not find much favour with buyers," a source said.