Yesterday, one of the most anticipated smartphones of the year, iPhone X, went up on sale. In India, the embargo for the sales lifted at 6:00PM, and many online and offline retailers participated in these sales.
Recently, Flipkart released a statement, claiming that it’s the fastest online retailer in India to deliver the iPhone X to customers yesterday as soon as the delivery embargo was lifted.
Ayyappan Rajagopal, Senior Director, Smartphones at Flipkart, said in a statement, “With careful planning and coordination between Apple and us, Flipkart was able to deliver the iPhone X within seconds of the sales going live globally. It was very heartening to see our customers experience a delivery time frame comparable to what buyers of the iPhone X saw at offline channels or in countries like the US”.
Even during the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus sales, Flipkart had aimed to deliver close to 90 percent of the pre-orders on the day itself. The response for the iPhone X, however, has been quite surprising. As opposed to the response for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus launch, the iPhone X witnessed longer and bigger queues on launch day.
The iPhone X is the most expensive iPhone so far, with the 64GB base variant priced at Rs 89,000. The 256GB variant retails at a whopping Rs 102,000.
While this initial reaction is completely weighing in Apple’s favour, this may not continue for long. Apparently, retailers and online players were handed over a thin supply of the iPhone X.
Reportedly, authorised resellers and corporate partners were disappointed at the limited stock being handed over to them. “Don’t expect any beeline for iPhone X in India as the company has handed over very limited stocks – some received even a mere 15-20 units – to online as well as offline authorised resellers. We, however, are yet to see a unit,’ an Apple Authorised Corporate Partner told IANSon the condition of anonymity.