iPhone X gives fresh life to gray market

Every time a flagship device is launched in India, the noose around the gray market's neck gets a little tight. Primarily, because most flagship devices are now launched exclusively on e-tail platforms and have little or no scope of being traded in the gray market. On the other hand, consumers, instead of going to gray market, prefer selling their old smartphones on OLX, Quikr. Platforms such as Cashify and Karma recycling are also preferred as they consumers get instant cash for the smartphones while sitting at home.

But every time the new iPhone is announced, it breathes fresh life in this slowly dying gray market primarily because the India launch date is usually a few weeks behind the global launch, and fans want to own and flaunt their new iPhone right now. For this, they usually are willing to pay a hefty premium that runs up to even 20 per cent of the market price.

But this time around the iPhone X has caused a disruption in the gray market for completely different reasons. The dealers are offering booking at a price similar to the market price and a few are even offering booking at even lower than the market price to their prized customers.

Two things have changed that gave way to this disruption, the iPhone X comes to India the very same day it goes on sale in the international market, and more importantly, Apple for the first time ever has announced global warranty on iPhone. What this means is a unit purchased overseas, for instance, in the U.S. would be covered in India too.

Now the official US price for a 64GB iPhoneX is 999$+Tax that comes roughly around 72000. And the same unit in INDIA is priced at Rs 89,000. Dealers in Delhi's Gaffar Market are offering handsets that come with a US bill and global warranty for as low as Rs 80,000.