American based tech company, Apple, has gone through with their decision to up the rates of many of their bestselling products in the Indian market.
The first generation of the Airpods, its third version and the Airpods max are just some of their products that have experienced a recent markup. The already high prices have now gone up by a tenth. The newly updated prices can be checked out on their official website. The previous price of the second generation of the Airpods was Rs.12,700, but after the increase in price, it stands at Rs. 14,100 before availing any discounts. The third generation of the Airpods used to cost Rs. 18,500 but the new updated price makes you shell out Rs. 20,700 due to mark up of Rs. 2000.
The Airpods Pro version has also seen a revision of prices recently as it used to cost Rs. 24,900 but the current rate stands at Rs. 26,300.
As you can see, the earphones category and audio products are the ones that have had to bear the brunt of the sudden increase in prices and Apple still has not announced a reason as to why they have increased. In fact, Apple never even announced the increase in prices and it was discovered by potential customers when they went to visit the Indian website.
The biggest up turn in prices is the one experienced by the Airpods as its rate went up by a staggering Rs. 6200. It used to cost Rs.59,900 but Apple decided to increase those rates even further and now lists them at Rs. 66,100.
According to speculation by experts and people of social media, they believe that that Apple were forced to increase their prices due to the sudden increase in custom duties and import tax.
Custom duties basically refer to the tax a company or an individual has to pay to the government when goods are being transported through international borders for the purpose of imports and exports. Currently, none of Apple’s audio devices are produced in India. Locally, a host of iPhones are produced, but none of their airpod ranges are. The Airpods used to be produced in Vietnam and assembled in China but ever since the coronavirus pandemic, Apple decided to manufacture and assemble all their Airpods products in China only and ship them worldwide from there. This is why the price of iPhones have remained the same while the price of Airpods have drastically increased.