The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max officially arrived in India on September 18, and the launch day scene was absolutely wild. Massive queues snaked outside Apple's retail stores as customers lined up hours before opening time, desperate to be among the first to grab the new flagships. But here's the thing that caught everyone's attention: some buyers were making jaw-dropping financial sacrifices just to own one of these phones.
A Delhi customer at the DLF Mall of India store in Noida actually sold his gold jewelry to afford an iPhone 18 Pro as a surprise gift for his wife. Another shopper had travelled all the way from Punjab and waited since 6 am outside the store to buy an iPhone 18 Pro Max for himself and an iPhone 18 Pro for his fiancée. That pair spent over Rs 3.5 lakh combined on their two devices. These aren't isolated incidents, either. Plenty of buyers showed up with serious cash and serious determination to walk out with Apple's newest flagship.
What makes this launch timing particularly brutal for consumers is that it's coinciding with India's festive shopping season, when electronics prices are supposed to get competitive. Instead, the opposite is happening. Rising memory and component costs have pushed prices of smartphones and other gadgets upward, squeezing upgrade budgets across the board.
Amazon India has even acknowledged that higher prices are keeping people stuck with older phones longer than usual. The e-commerce giant is expecting slower upgrade volumes this festive season, even as total electronics spending value might grow thanks to those inflated price tags. To counter this, Amazon's banking on exchange offers, EMI schemes, and no-cost financing to make upgrading more palatable for budget-conscious shoppers.
For Apple, the iPhone 18 launch proves that there's still raw demand among India's affluent phone buyers willing to fork over massive amounts for the latest iOS device, even if it means pulling gold from their vaults. The six Apple retail stores across India remain the official channels alongside the company's online shop, and based on launch day energy, those queues aren't disappearing anytime soon.
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