“Less than four months after relaunching iPhone 4, Apple decided to once again withdraw its only phone below Rs 20,000, appearing to ease up on its strategy to push volumes in emerging markets such as India to protect margins,” Writankar Mukherjee reports for The Times of India. “The move comes as Apple reported a $41 drop globally in the average selling price (ASP) of the iPhone to $596 in the quarter ended March, which analysts blamed on the relaunch of the iPhone 4 and the cut in iPhone 4S prices in emerging markets. Three of Apple’s leading trade partners said fresh supplies of the iPhone 4 in India have stopped in the past two weeks and the company has already indicated to its trade partners that it won’t be taking fresh orders for the model.”
“Apple had decided to resume production of iPhone 4 to compete harder in markets such as India, Brazil and China. It will now pull out the product from all markets, one of its trade partners said. Another partner said the iPhone 4 had served its purpose in India: it doubled the consumer base of iPhones to more than 25 lakh people in one year. And, iPhone users generally being brand loyal, it’s unlikely that these users will migrate to any other brand, the person added.,” Mukherjee reports. “Trade partners also said that the iPhone 4s has emerged as the firm’s top-selling phone after Apple launched a Rs 7,500 buyback offer last month, reducing the gap with the iPhone 4 to Rs 3,000. ‘With the buyback offer, iPhone 4s is now Apple’s largest selling model by the number of units sold and also amongst our top five selling models,’ said Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO at The Mobile Store, India’s largest cellphone retail chain. Since the buyback offer, retailers said iPhone 4S sales have doubled in India.”
“During Apple’s quarterly earnings conference call last month,” Mukherjee reports, “Apple CEO Tim Cook said the impact of the iPhone 4 was minimal as the firm sold ‘a very low single-digit percentage of those’ in the quarter.”
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MacDailyNews Take: R.I.P. iPhone 4. It’s time. That little single-core A4 and iOS 7 really didn’t get along very well. iPhone 4s, with its dual-core A5, is a much better introductory iPhone for the masses.