Which country is the most expensive and cheapest place to buy an iPhone 12?

• Counterpoint Research expects Apple to become number two player, after Samsung, in the fourth quarter and for the whole year.
• Apple iPhone 12 sales are expected to be more than the supply this year.
• Significant pent-up demand seen from iOS subscribers as they put off upgrades for the 5G devices.
• Apple could manufacture iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini in India by the first or second quarter of next year.

Dubai: The most expensive place to buy an iPhone 12 models is in India and the cheapest is in the US.

In the US, the iPhone 12 (128GB) is priced at $943 while in India, it is priced at $1,158 and same is the case for iPhone 12 Pro.

In the US, it is priced at $1,071 while in India; it is priced at $1,636.

The UAE is the third most expensive country to buy an iPhone. The iPhone 12 is priced at $983 and $1,143 for iPhone 12 Pro.

The iPhone prices in the US are also quite low compared to other countries. The Japanese are also among the luckiest Apple customers. Here, the new iPhone model is available for under $950 (including tax) for the 128GB iPhone 12 and just over $1,100 for the 64GB iPhone 12 Pro.

While the price of the iPhone 11 was one of the highest in the world in the UK and Russia, the price of the 12 models turned out lower.

Customers in Germany and France are going to pay more of a premium this time around.

The 6.7-inch Pro Max is priced at Rs1,29,900 in India while the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro is priced at Rs1,19,900 and iPhone 12 is priced at Rs69,900.

Shobhit Srivastava, a Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, told Tech Channel News that iPhone 12 models are not manufactured in India and carry a 20 per cent import tax as it is manufactured in China.

“Apple’s idea is not to sell super-premium phones but to get more users into its ecosystem by reducing the prices of its older models in India. Once a consumer is into their ecosystem, they will any way upgrade it to a newer iPhone model after a few years,” he said.

The best-selling iPhone could be iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 Mini because of the price points, he said.

Apple 5G phones to have a bigger pie in India

“Apple can have a bigger pie of the 5G smartphone market when 5G is likely to be launched in India in 2022. Then, the prices of older iPhone 12 models will be cheaper in India and they could be manufactured in India and consumers can avail the 20 per cent import tax cut,” he said.

Moreover, he said that Apple is likely to manufacture iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 in the first or second quarter of next year in India.

Apple started assembling phones in India with the original iPhone SE in 2017. In 2018, it moved assembly of the iPhone 6S also to India, followed up by iPhone 7 in 2019. All these units were manufactured by Wistron in its Bangalore plant.

In 2019, Apple’s partner Foxconn started assembling the iPhone XR at its plant in Chennai and followed by assembly of the iPhone 11 models this year at the Chennai plant.

For Indian customers, Srivastava said that older iPhones have traditionally offered a more affordable entry point in the Apple ecosystem and that is due to the price cut.

Even the iPhone 11 Pro models had a 20 per cent import tax and Apple quickly started manufacturing iPhone 11 in India.

Pegatron will be the fourth partner of Apple to set its footprint in India after Wistron, Foxconn and Compal Electronics. At present, only Wistron and Foxconn assemble iPhones in India.

Apple OEMs in India get PLI approval

In a bid to boost electronics manufacturing in the country, the Indian government in April introduced the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which would give incentives of 4-6 per cent to electronics companies which manufacture mobile phones and other electronic components in India.

The total incentive to be given in the first year is capped at Rs53.34 billion, Rs80.64 billion in the second year, Rs84.25 billion in the third year, Rs114.88 billion in the fourth year and Rs76.4 billion in the fifth and final year. The total incentives over five years have been pegged at Rs409.51 billion.

“The iPhone manufacturers such as Wistron, Foxconn and Pegatron have been approved under the PLI scheme. The approval comes only in view that Apple will produce more iPhones in India,” Srivastava said.

The global demand for iPhone 12 will be very high, he said, more than the supply this year.

So, he said the demand is going to be better than iPhone 11 and they will become the number two smartphone manufacturer in the fourth quarter after Samsung.

Counterpoint Market Outlook forecasts that Apple’s October-December 2020 line-up sales will exceed the iPhone 11 family’s September-December sales by one per cent and this growth is despite a delayed launch in 2020 where Apple’s new line-up will see zero sales in September and also miss much of October sales.

According to DigiTimes report, Apple’s new 5G smartphone series is expected to see significant sales momentum, with shipments for iPhone 12 devices standing a chance of hitting as many as 80 million units by the end of 2020, although the US vendor is looking to build an inventory of 71-75 million units for this year.

It is either Huawei or Apple in ultra-premium space

Jeff Fieldhack, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said that there is significant pent-up demand from iOS subscribers putting off upgrades until these 5G devices launch. Also, options for display sizes and price points will help drive sales.

“In countries where 5G has begun to roll out, operators will have a significant monetary incentive to migrate LTE iOS subscribers to their near-empty 5G networks. The US is likely to see its most competitive marketing wars in years, which will benefit Apple. European carriers will also see elevated levels of marketing. But China is not expected to be as aggressive,” he said.

For the whole year, Srivastava said that Apple is very likely to become number two due to the Huawei woes.

“It all depends on how many Mate 40 phones can Huawei produce with the latest Kirin chipset and nobody has any idea. After the ban came in, Huawei had very little time to produce and procure the 5nm chipset from TSMC,” he said.

Even Apple is launching the new iPhones with 5nm A14 Bionic chip.

“If Huawei can do good sales with Mate 40, then the sales of iPhone 12 in China will be impacted as there is no other vendor and competition in the super-premium space in China as of now. Samsung was not able to make a dent in China with its ultra-premium phones. It is either Apple or Huawei in the ultra-premium space in China,” he said.

“My view is that Mate 40 shipments are not going to be as high as Mate 30 series last year,” he said.