Waiting for iPhone 18 Made Last Year’s Models Cost More

Apple’s India store now lists the iPhone 17 at Rs 99,900, Rs 17,000 more than the tag that sat there before the iPhone 18 Pro launch. The iPhone Air, iPhone 17e and two-year-old iPhone 16 moved up the same night, after the Surprise and Shine event on September 9.

Buyers who treat that September show as a clearance on last year’s phones got the opposite. The leftover models cost more, and the fattest jump landed on storage tiers that used to be the patient shopper’s bargain.

The September Sale That Ran Backward

John Ternus, Apple’s new chief executive as of September 1, spent the keynote on the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the foldable iPhone Duo. The shop change on leftover phones did not get a slide. By the time the India store refreshed, every older iPhone still on sale had a higher number next to it, and the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max were gone.

Tim Cook, then Apple’s chief executive, had already flagged the squeeze in June. He said the company had tried to shield customers from chip costs that memory suppliers were passing through, and that the buffer had run out.

Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We’re doing our best to mitigate the significant cost increases being passed on to us, and we’ve tried to shield our customers from them. However, the situation has become unsustainable.

Tim Cook, then Apple chief executive, to The Wall Street Journal, June 2026

Cook also said there was less supply at a time when customers still wanted devices, and that memory pricing for consumer products needed to return to reasonable levels. The same squeeze already shows up as an AI memory tax on the new Pros, and it has now reached phones that received no new silicon on September 9.

People who bought an iPhone 17 in late August paid last month’s tag. People who waited for the new keynote, the usual India move, walked into a higher floor.

What the India Store Charges Now

Apple’s official India iPhone price ladder now starts the leftover range at Rs 79,900 for the iPhone 17e and runs through Rs 2,24,900 for the 1TB iPhone Air. The new iPhone 18 Pro opens at Rs 1,64,900, the iPhone 18 Pro Max at Rs 1,79,900, and the iPhone Duo at Rs 2,99,900.

INDIA LIST PRICES AFTER SEPTEMBER 9

The iPhone 17 now sits Rs 100 short of Rs 1,00,000. The iPhone 16, a 2024 phone with 128GB at the base, is only Rs 10,000 below that 17, which starts at 256GB. The Air’s cheapest 256GB model is Rs 15,000 under the new 18 Pro, a thin-phone price that now lives next to Pro money.

Selected iPhones still carry up to six months of no-cost EMI plus Rs 7,000 instant cashback. Trade-in credit of Rs 17,500 to Rs 81,500 is pitched toward the Duo or the 18 Pro when you hand in an iPhone 13 or newer, which points the upgrade path at the new high end rather than at the phones that just got more expensive.

Last Year Apple Cut Rs 10,000

The India shop has spent recent Septembers doing the other thing. After a new iPhone landed, last year’s standard model dropped by about Rs 10,000 and stayed on the site as the value door. That pattern is why so many buyers wait for the keynote before they pay full rupees for a year-old phone.

HOW SEPTEMBER USED TO MOVE THE TAGS

1. September 9, 2024: Apple cuts the iPhone 15 by Rs 10,000 to Rs 69,900 after the iPhone 16 launch, and lists the iPhone 14 from Rs 59,900.
2. September 10, 2025: Apple cuts the iPhone 16 by Rs 10,000 to Rs 69,900 and the iPhone 16 Plus to Rs 79,900 after the iPhone 17 launch.
3. September 9, 2026: Apple raises the iPhone 17, iPhone 17e, iPhone Air and iPhone 16, and pulls the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max from the official shop.

The iPhone 16 now costs Rs 89,900, which is Rs 20,000 above the Rs 69,900 official price that followed last year’s cut and Rs 10,000 above its own Rs 79,900 India launch price. A two-year-old phone is more expensive on Apple’s site than it was on launch day.

The iPhone 17e, sold from March at Rs 64,900 as the cheaper door, is now Rs 79,900. That is the old iPhone 16 launch number, recycled onto a phone Apple still bills as the accessible one.

The Air’s 1TB Model Jumps Rs 65,000

The iPhone Air took the hardest hit, and the top storage tier took the hardest hit inside that hit. The 256GB and 512GB Airs each rose 25.0%. The 1TB Air rose from Rs 1,59,900 to Rs 2,24,900, a Rs 65,000 climb and a 40.6% jump, the largest move Apple posted on this India refresh.

That 1TB Air now costs more than the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s Rs 1,79,900 starting price. You pay Pro Max money, then another Rs 45,000, for last year’s thin phone with a terabyte of flash. NAND is the part of the bill that storage SKUs cannot hide, and Apple passed it through instead of shrinking the 1TB option.

The Air itself did not change. Apple’s India page still sells it as 5.6 millimetres thick and 165 grams, with the A19 Pro chip and a 6.5-inch display. The hardware is the 2025 phone. Only the rupee line moved, and it moved far enough that the Air no longer reads as a step below Pro. It reads as a Pro-adjacent bill without the new camera or the new chip.

Authorised shops may still show yesterday’s hangtags for a day or two, which is why some buyers were told to walk into a store rather than refresh the website. The official number is the one the site already shows.

Why India Pays More Than the US

The United States moved leftover iPhones by $100 on the base SKUs. The iPhone 17 went from $799 to $899, the iPhone Air from $999 to $1,099, the iPhone 17e from $599 to $699, and the iPhone 16 from $699 to $799, matching the U.S. store starting prices now on Apple’s shop. The 1TB Air is the U.S. exception: it rose $300, from $1,399 to $1,699, a 21.4% climb that is still about half the India 1TB jump.

BASE-MODEL RISE, INDIA VS UNITED STATES

Counterpoint Research’s Global Smartphone Price Increase Tracker, dated September 3, found that India retail prices rose 21 percent so far in 2026, the steepest national figure it published. The global average was 15%. The United States was 5%, Europe 7%, China 10%, Latin America 16%, the Middle East and Africa 18%, and the rest of Asia Pacific 19%. New launches worldwide were 25% costlier than year-ago models, and more than 40% of active models had already been marked up.

Memory has become a key driver of smartphone BoM costs, resetting pricing across the industry and leaving OEMs with limited room to absorb higher costs. The impact is most acute in price-sensitive markets, where average price increases of 16%-21% are making devices less affordable. Consumers are responding by delaying upgrades, pushing purchases around big sales events or turning to the pre-owned market.

Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint Research, September 3, 2026

Six days before Apple’s shop moved, that same note still said Apple was holding iPhone prices steady even though memory had risen fourfold since the fourth quarter of 2025. Karn Chauhan, a senior Counterpoint analyst, said new-phone prices would keep rising in the coming quarters, including on the iPhone 18 series. The leftover lineup did not wait for a later quarter.

India’s mix explains the steeper percentage. Low- and mid-range phones still make up a large share of units, so a memory bill that can be spread across a $1,199 Pro in the United States lands harder on a rupee ladder that a lot of buyers enter below Rs 1,00,000. The iPhone 16’s 28.6% India rise is the clearest picture of that: a 2024 phone, already cut once, then pushed above its launch price.

Festival Discounts Now Start From a Higher Floor

The practical hit is not only the new sticker. India sale events mark down from Apple’s official number, so a higher list price follows shoppers into Flipkart and Amazon weeks even when the banner still says sale. The Big Billion Days calendar does not get a lower starting point this year. It gets a higher one.

WHAT THE NEW LADDER CLOSES OFF

• The old Pro door: The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are off the official shop, so last year’s Pro is no longer a discounted in-house step.
• The 2024 Plus: Apple’s India shop no longer lists an iPhone 16 Plus, leaving the 128GB iPhone 16 as the remaining 2024 model at Rs 89,900.
• The trade-in funnel: Credit of Rs 17,500 to Rs 81,500 is aimed at the Duo or the 18 Pro, not at the 17, the Air or the 16 that just became dearer.
• The missing standard 18: No new non-Pro iPhone 18 appeared on September 9, so the iPhone 17 remains the current standard phone, now at Rs 99,900, until a later cycle.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro open on September 12. The iPhone Duo is listed for pre-order on October 16. In the United States the 18 Pro starts at $1,199 and the 18 Pro Max at $1,299, a modest list-price step on the new Pros of $100 above the phones they replace, with the Duo at $1,999. India put a larger rupee gap on the phones that were supposed to get cheaper when those new ones arrived.

The wait-for-September habit assumed Apple would keep last year’s iPhone on the site at a cut. This year the company kept the phones and raised the prices, and the iPhone 16 now costs more than it did in 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Did Apple Raise Last Year’s iPhone Prices in September 2026?

Memory used in phones has been pulled toward AI data-centre parts, and Counterpoint says smartphone memory prices have risen about fourfold since the fourth quarter of 2025. Cook said in June that suppliers were passing those increases on and that Apple could no longer keep absorbing them on consumer products, which is the bill the leftover iPhone shop is now collecting.

How Much Did the iPhone Air 1TB Rise in India?

The 1TB iPhone Air went from Rs 1,59,900 to Rs 2,24,900, a Rs 65,000 and 40.6% rise. That SKU is now Rs 45,000 above the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s Rs 1,79,900 starting price, and the same 1TB Air rose $300 to $1,699 in the United States, a 21.4% U.S. move of about half the India percentage.

Did Apple Cut Older iPhone Prices After the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 Launches?

Yes. After the iPhone 16 launch in September 2024, Apple cut the iPhone 15 by Rs 10,000 to Rs 69,900 and listed the iPhone 14 from Rs 59,900, Rs 20,000 below that phone’s Rs 79,900 launch price in 2022. After the iPhone 17 launch in September 2025, it cut the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus by Rs 10,000 each.

How Does the India Hike Compare With the U.S. Increase?

U.S. leftover base models moved $100, which is 10.0% on the iPhone Air 256GB and 12.5% on the iPhone 17. India’s matching rises are 25.0% and 20.5%, and the iPhone 16’s India rise is 28.6% against 14.3% in the United States, in a year Counterpoint already ranked as India’s sharpest retail-price jump among the markets it tracks.