Smartphone may hike prices of budget phones after Diwali: Report

Smartphone companies, as of now, are offering massive discounts on the purchase of their devices in India. Be it in the form of sale on their e-shops or via the festive sales hosted by e-retail platforms such as Amazon India and Flipkart, OEMs are offering discounts in India across categories, which makes this the best time to buy new devices. But this might change soon as a new report hint towards tech companies increasing the prices of the devices in India once the festive sales are over.

According to a report by the Economic Times Telecom, tech companies in India are planning to hike the prices of their devices, especially budget smartphones, after Diwali. The report says that smartphone makers in India could hike the prices of their devices by five to seven percent between October and December this year. This move is likely to increase the average industry selling from around Rs 17,000 in the second quarter of 2022 to around Rs 20,000 in the final quarter of the year.

The price hike is an outcome of the steadily weakening value of the Indian Rupee against the US Dollar, which in turn has increased the cost of components for the companies. This is also true for the smartphone makers that manufacture their devices in India as they have to source components from various parts of the world. So, a weakening Rupee will drive up the cost of sourcing various components, which in turn will increase cost pressures on these companies.

Up until now, smartphone makers in India have been absorbing the cost difference incurred by them owing to the steadily declining value of Rupee. But this is likely to change once the festive season is over if the value of Rupee does not strengthen.

Furthermore, the report says that the change is likely to impact budget smartphones more compared to the mid-budget and premium smartphones. Apple recently hiked the price of its budget iPhone SE 2022Apple iPhone SE 2022 gets a price hike of Rs 6,000 in India: Check new pricing in India. Xiaomi and Lava are expected to follow the suit if the condition prevails. However, premium devices such as Samsung’s foldable phones are not likely to witness a steep hike as they are already priced a notch higher than their last year’s counterparts.

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