By Sindhu Hariharan

Copyright thehindubusinessline

As Apple’s new iPhone 17 was welcomed by packed stores and much fanfare on Friday, its opening sales beat that of its previous variant by a significant margin, and is expected to be the tech giant’s festive season star.

Apple’s own retail stores across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune have helped the brand capitalise on the premiumisation trend in India with analysts estimating stronger sales for iPhone 17 base model compared to iPhone 16. They also expect the model to help Apple achieve record sales in the festive season ahead

Strategy paying off

“Apple’s strategy across product portfolio, channels and manufacturing is paying off, with the initial demand for the iPhone 17 series being 19 per cent higher than the iPhone 16 series. The highest demand (by growth rate) is for the Pro and Pro Max models, which is already being reported out of stock on multiple channels,” Tarun Pathak, Research Director, Counterpoint Research, said.

“The upgrade of base variant to 256GB combined with cashback and up to 24 months of EMI is making it a better value proposition compared to last year’s base version,” he added.

Counterpoint expects Apple to reach record sales in the upcoming festive season by growing 28 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y).

The pre-bookings for iPhone 17 series also signal a strong momentum. The cosmic orange variant has particularly helped drive consumer interests, analysts note. Demand for the slim iPhone 17 Air variant, however, remains low compared to the other models, primarily due to pricing, analysts added.

Positive trend

Upasana Joshi, Senior Research Manager, IDC, said that pre-orders for iPhone 17 are outpacing those for the iPhone 16 series during the same period last year, and this positive trend is expected to continue through the upcoming Diwali quarter. IDC estimates that over 5 million iPhones will be shipped in Q3 2025 with the new iPhone 17 series alone accounting for 15-20 per cent of these shipments.

“Boosted by the sales of iPhone 17 we expect that as we end 2025, 10 per cent of the smartphone market would be Apple,” Joshi said. This with iPhone’s average selling price (ASP) almost 3x that of Indian smartphone market’s average ASP is noteworthy, she added.

Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys (now part of Omdia), said that iPhone 17’s pre-orders are almost 30 per cent higher compared to iPhone 16 last year. The design and specs upgrade of Apple in this model, production planning, and the tendency of iPhone buyers to prefer the retail store channel has helped the brand, he added. Better traction for Pro and Pro Max expected in festive season in Apple stores and premium retailers

Interestingly, the shares of Redington, a key distributor of Apple products in India, surged over 9 per cent on Friday, as the sale of iPhone 17 began in India. The stock closed the trading day at ₹299.5, up almost 4 per cent on the BSE.

Published on September 19, 2025