In her mid-30s, she takes care of her father’s business. She is based in Lucknow, is stylish and a crazy Apple fan, grabbing each device of the iconic brand as and when these reach India, sometimes even before that.
On October 7, she paid close to Rs 14 lakh to a distributor of Apple to pre-book 21 units of the iPhone 6 Plus. As the clock struck midnight on Thursday, she took the delivery as Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus officially in India.
She is not alone. She and her friend in South Delhi were in a queue since 9.30 pm on Thursday, the latter to get delivery of a pre-booked 20 units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
What will you do with so many? “This is the best thing we could gift our dear ones in Diwali,” said the two buddies, who had to struggle hard to control their excitement after the latest possessions. The excitement was more as this was the first time Apple decided on a midnight sale, like it does in the US.
With pre-booking of about 22,000 units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the company attracted good crowds in many stores across Delhi. Sources said the company had shipped about 55,000 units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6Plus for only the Indian market in the first lot. The supply would increase depending on on-counter sales in the coming weeks. At South Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I, M-Block market, there were about 150 students, bloggers, business owners and working professionals queueing, both the pre-bookers and those for counter sales.
The iPhone 6 16GB is priced at Rs 53,500, the 64GB at Rs 62,500 and 128GB at Rs 71,500. The iPhone 6 Plus 16 GB is priced at Rs 62,500, the 64GB at Rs 71,500 and 128GB at Rs 80,500. Both are available in silver, gold and space-grey colour options.
The midnight sale was limited to certain outlets. “Now, I’ll have to wait till tomorrow,” said a disappointed Delhi-based businessman, who tried his luck at Connaught Place.
Many sold their earlier devices to buy the latest iPhones. South Delhi-based Ankur Jain, a software professional, who has bought his first iPhone, said: “I sold my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S4 to buy iPhone 6.” He said he was not happy with the Samsung devices. “I have been using MacBook. There can’t be anything better than Apple devices,” he said.
There are others who upgraded from the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. “I wanted to upgrade to iPhone 6 as it is bigger in size than the previous ones,” said a Delhi-based blogger who completed his acquisition at the GK-I market after midnight.
Apple’s premium resellers, who organised the midnight sale, made special arrangements for the prospective buyers. There was free refreshment and magic shows, live bands and bean bags while the enthusiasts awaited the clock to strike 12. Other brands also came to leverage the enthusiasm. At GK-I, Red Bull had tied up for the launch and was offering water and Red Bull drinks to those in the queue. At Gurgaon’s Cyberhub, Starbucks had taken special permission to keep its outlet open till late night as consumers queued for the iPhone sale to begin.
None of the retailers could start selling even a minute before midnight. Apple had been strict on this demand. Else, it said, the device would not come under a warranty and nor would the SIM be activated on the device.
