{"id":11,"date":"2016-05-24T10:33:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T10:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepostgrid:8888\/?p=11"},"modified":"2018-12-25T16:18:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T16:18:43","slug":"tim-cook-admits-prices-are-high-for-iphones-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiustheme.com\/demo\/wordpress\/thepostgridpro\/tim-cook-admits-prices-are-high-for-iphones-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Cook admits \u2018prices are high\u2019 for iPhones in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple CEO Tim Cook<\/a> made an uncharacteristic admission today in an interview with Indian news channel NDTV<\/a> \u2014 that iPhones are too expensive. He immediately qualified it, and the context really is important, but it\u2019s just one of those things you don\u2019t hear very often.<\/p>\n

A report from Deutsche Bank<\/a> found recently that India is among the most expensive places in the world to buy an iPhone, with prices averaging 31 percent higher than the U.S. \u2014 only Sweden, Indonesia and Brazil have it worse.<\/p>\n

After some opening softballs (or rather, cricket balls), Cook faced some serious grilling on this topic from NDTV\u2019s Vikram Chandra.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got an iPhone here which is more expensive than it is in the U.S., with less functionality than it would have in the U.S., and in a country where purchasing power is a fraction of what it is in the U.S.,\u201d Chandra said.<\/p>\n

Cook acknowledged the truth of the statements, but caught himself before going too far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe duties and the taxes and the compounding of those takes the price and it makes it very high. our profitability is less in India, it\u2019s materially less \u2014 but still\u00a0I recognize that prices are high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do things that lower that over time, to the degree that we can,\u201d he said. \u201cI want the consumer in India to be able to buy at a price that looks like the U.S. price.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t detail much in the way of concrete steps to this end, however, saying the company was \u201clooking at India holistically\u201d before getting into retail or fiddling with carrier relationships. And it\u2019s worth noting that he did not say the iPhone was overpriced, merely too expensive. They\u2019re different things, not that it matters to someone who has to pay $850 for a base-level iPhone 6.<\/p>\n