Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
There are Apple events, and then there are Apple events where you can almost feel the internet waiting to explode.
This year’s launch at Apple Park had that feeling from the moment people started walking into the venue. The usual crowd of journalists, creators and Apple fans was joined by some of the biggest names on the internet, including Marques Brownlee and iShowSpeed. Cameras were everywhere, phones were constantly being held up, and there was a clear sense that everyone wanted to be among the first to show the world what Apple had just unveiled.
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But this year’s event felt slightly different. For starters, there was a new face opening the biggest Apple keynote of the year.
A new man at the centre of Apple
John Ternus took the stage and kicked off the keynote as Apple CEO for the first time. For anyone who has followed Apple for years, that was a significant moment in itself.
What was equally noticeable was who wasn’t there.
Tim Cook, who had become almost inseparable from Apple’s biggest product launches over the last decade, was not seated in the audience during the keynote.
His absence naturally became a talking point, particularly because this was the first major iPhone launch with Ternus at the helm.
But the bigger story was not about the person missing from the room. It was about how quickly Apple appeared to be moving into its next chapter. And that chapter, at least during this keynote, was heavily centred around software and artificial intelligence.
Apple Intelligence takes centre stage
If you came expecting two hours of hardware announcements, Apple had a slightly different plan. A surprisingly large portion of the keynote was dedicated to Apple Intelligence and the company’s plans for a more capable Siri. Apple spent considerable time explaining how AI would become part of the everyday iPhone experience rather than something users have to consciously open and use.
That made this feel less like a hardware upgrade event and more like a software push. The message seemed clear: Apple doesn’t just want your iPhone to have a better camera or a faster chip. It wants the phone to understand what you are doing, help you get things done and increasingly work in the background.
For a company that has traditionally made its hardware the star of its launches, that was an important shift in emphasis.
Of course, whether all of this changes how people actually use their iPhones will become clearer once these features reach users. But sitting inside the Steve Jobs Theatre, it was hard to miss how much importance Apple was placing on AI.
Then came the rush for the iPhones
The atmosphere changed completely once the hardware was unveiled.
There is a particular kind of chaos that happens at an Apple launch when journalists are finally allowed to get their hands on the new devices. People who have spent the last two hours sitting quietly suddenly start moving in every direction, looking for the best angle, the cleanest shot and the quickest way to get their first video online.
And this year, there was one obvious star. The new iPhone Duo.
While the new Apple Watch and AirPods 5 were also available to experience, they received considerably less attention amid the frenzy. Most people wanted to see, shoot and talk about the new iPhones.
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, meanwhile, felt more like refinements of an already familiar formula. There are meaningful changes under the hood, but visually, they don’t represent a dramatic departure from the previous generation.
That didn’t stop people from wanting to get their hands on them.
The reality of covering an event like this, however, is that you don’t really get two leisurely hours with the products. You get a crowded room, hundreds of people trying to shoot the same devices and a very small window to experience them before the focus shifts to getting the story out.
Despite having two hours allocated for the product experience, I probably spent only a few minutes actually using the devices.
The rest of the time was spent doing what everyone else was doing — shooting, writing, recording and sending content back home.
The big question for India: How expensive is too expensive?
There was one subject that kept coming up in conversations after the launch: price.
Apple has pushed the Pro models considerably higher in India this year, with the increase working out to roughly Rs 25,000-30,000 depending on the model and configuration. That puts Apple’s premium iPhones firmly into ultra-premium territory.
And there was a noticeable air of uncertainty about how Indian consumers would respond.
Analyst, Neil Shah, VP Research at Counterpoint Research says there could be some initial apprehension, particularly because Indian consumers have not traditionally experienced Apple pricing at these levels.
“There will be a little bit of apprehension,” Shah says, pointing out that premium iPhones in India have traditionally occupied a lower price range. According to him, Apple is now effectively creating a new ultra-premium category for its smartphones.
But Shah also believes the market is slowly getting used to expensive smartphones. Samsung’s Ultra series, for instance, has already pushed towards similar price points, while the rising cost of components is making premium devices more expensive across the industry.
“People are getting warmed up to, okay, this is a new normal of the new pricing,” he says. “But the best experience you have to shell out money.”
That changes the calculation. Instead of simply asking how much a phone costs, buyers increasingly look at what they are getting and how long they expect to keep it.
Financing also makes these ultra-premium phones easier to digest. Spread the cost of a device over three or four years, and the monthly figure can suddenly look less intimidating. And the fact that the initial batch of the Duo will not be made in India, the CBU units will attract substantial GST added to the overall cost.
But there is still a psychological barrier when the price on the box jumps by tens of thousands of rupees.
“There will be a little bit of apprehension,” Shah says, pointing out that premium iPhones in India have traditionally occupied a lower price range. According to him, Apple is now effectively creating a new ultra-premium category for its smartphones.
But Shah also believes the market is slowly getting used to pricier smartphones. Samsung’s Ultra series, for instance, has already pushed towards similar price points, while the rising cost of components is making premium devices more expensive across the industry.
“People are getting warmed up to, okay, this is a new normal of the new pricing,” he says. “But the best experience you have to shell out money.”
No regular iPhone this year
Another interesting decision was what Apple didn’t launch. There was no standard iPhone 18 this year. That means Apple’s new lineup is becoming increasingly premium, with no newly launched iPhone sitting below the Rs 1 lakh mark in India.
It is another sign of the company’s premiumisation strategy. Apple appears increasingly comfortable leaving the lower end of the market to older iPhones and pushing buyers towards more expensive new models.
For someone upgrading from an iPhone 17, the 18 Pro may not feel revolutionary. But for someone still using an iPhone 13 or 14, the equation is very different.
Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint, believes this distinction is important.
The upgrades may look incremental when compared year-on-year, says, but someone coming from a three-year-old iPhone will see a much bigger difference.
For those users, the iPhone 18 series could make considerably more sense than it does for someone upgrading every year.
And then there was the Duo
But if there was one product that dominated conversations at Apple Park, it was the iPhone Duo.
Starting at around Rs 3 lakh in India, this is clearly not a phone designed to become Apple’s biggest volume seller.
Even the analysts aren’t expecting it to.
Pathak believes the Duo will remain largely an aspirational product in India and create what he calls a “halo effect” for Apple.
The ultra-premium smartphone segment, after all, accounts for less than 5 per cent of the overall Indian smartphone market. Devices above Rs 2 lakh represent an even smaller slice.
So the Duo is unlikely to move the overall market in any dramatic way. But that may not be the point.
It is a statement product. It tells consumers that Apple is willing to go further into premium territory and offer something that very few people will own.
There is also a certain exclusivity attached to that.
At the event, that exclusivity was visible. When everyone rushed towards the products, the Duo naturally became one of the biggest attractions. People wanted to photograph it, hold it, understand how it looked and, perhaps most importantly, tell their audiences that they had seen it first.
The event belonged to the foldable iPhone
Walking out of Apple Park, the feeling was that this was an event about more than just another iPhone upgrade.
Apple is clearly betting heavily on AI and a more intelligent Siri. It is pushing its smartphones further into premium territory. And with the Duo, it has introduced a product that is unlikely to sell in huge numbers but could make the rest of the iPhone family feel even more desirable.
The iPhone 18 Pro series may not look radically different, but Apple doesn’t necessarily need to reinvent the iPhone every year. What it needs to do is give people a reason to upgrade when they are ready.
And this year, it has given them several reasons — AI, new hardware, premium positioning and, for those willing to spend nearly Rs 3 lakh, a completely new kind of iPhone.
For now, though, the biggest question isn’t whether people at Apple Park were excited. They clearly were.
The real test begins when these phones reach Indian stores and consumers have to decide whether the latest iPhone is worth the considerably bigger cheque.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
