Apple’s much-awaited 10th-anniversary edition- the iPhone X - will soon be in the hands of customers from November 3 onwards and the enthusiasts can’t wait.
Despite the lavish price, (that is, in fact, true for all new iPhones) Apple’s iPhone X has garnered special attention as it has for the first time introduced Face ID, Wireless Charging and a faster bionic chip in its phones.
There have been reports that Apple will not able to meet the demand on the rollout date due to unprecedented orders.
When the iPhone X was made available for pre-order, despite being priced at a lofty USD 999, it got out-of-stock in minutes.
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Demand, price and features aside, an essential cost that people may forego thinking about is - service repair.
The iPhone X, priced at Rs 89,000 in India, comes attached with a hefty cost if it breaks.
Here’s a quick glance at the repair costs (as listed by Apple for the US) for different components of the iPhone X, as compared to other iPhones:
Repair costs of the iPhone X as compared to its predecessors (Source: Apple.com)
Breaking the screen alone will end up costing you USD 279 or Rs 18,016 and if you end up causing 'additional damage to the phone that isn't limited to the screen' it will cost you a whopping USD 549 (Rs 35,451).
At that price, you can actually buy a new premium in-demand smartphone like the OnePlus 5 (Rs 32,999), Google Pixel 32-GB version (Rs 34,999) or an Honor 8 pro (Rs 29,999).
Due to lack of parity between the price of the iPhone here and in the US, (In India the starting price is Rs 89,000 whereas in the US at USD 999 it roughly comes around Rs 65,000) the cost of repairing the iPhone X in India may be even higher.
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Interestingly, in the United States, the cost of repair for iPhone X happens to equal the purchase price of an iPhone 7.
Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, introduces the iPhone X during a launch event in Cupertino, California, US. (Courtesy: Reuters)
Repair costs have taken a huge leap as compared to its previous models. This probably makes sense as the iPhone X is different in its features as compared to its predecessors, and it also factors in a glass-covered chassis and OLED display.
A Reuters report quotes Apple saying that it intends to expand screen repair capabilities and increase the number of authorised repair centres by end of this year to about 400 in 25 countries.
Apple is well-known for being the smartphone brand with the largest loyal user-base retention in the world. When people buy Apple, they usually don’t shift to other brands, and a Morgan Stanley report proves it all the more.
A whopping 92 percent of customers in the US don't jump brands after buying the Apple iPhone (Courtesy: Statista)
This also makes it more apparent that iPhone users need to worry more about economical after-sales service.
An after-sales service solution
In such a scenario, customers going for the iPhone X might want to take Apple’s Care Plan as a two-year lifeline. The care plan is part of Apple’s extended service warranty that extends their damage protection coverage to two years from the iPhone purchase date and also includes repair coverage cost.
In the US, the Apple Care Plan includes a USD 29 (Rs 1,873) fee for screen damage and a USD 99 fee (Rs 6,394) for other damage, including accidents.
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The iPhone X will cost Rs 89,000 for the 64GB model in India, while the 256 GB model will come around Rs 1.02 lakh and will be made available starting November 3.
What is iPhone X's manufacturing cost
Chinese industry insiders have tried to come up with an estimate of the material price of the iPhone X.
The iPhone X (Courtesy: Apple)
The actual price for an iPhone screen, considering Samsung has supplied Apple the Super Retina Display, cost the Cupertino giant somewhere around USD 80 (Rs 5,167). The A11 Bionic chipset cost it around USD 26 (Rs 1,679) per piece, the 3D facing sensor cost it around USD 25 (Rs 1,614) whereas the NAND memory supplied by Toshiba cost it USD 45 (Rs 2,906).
On adding all this up, the number amounts to USD 412 (Rs 26,610), which means there's about Rs 62,390 extra an Indian buyer pays for the Apple iPhone X. All figures are based on market estimates.
(Currency figures are in 1 USD = Rs 64.58)
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