TL; DR
- Apple has hiked MacBook and iPad prices in India by up to ₹70,000.
- The MacBook Air 13-inch M5 is now ₹1,49,900, up from ₹1,19,900 previously.
- Third-party retailers have already updated prices, closing the gap for sale-season buyers.
I bought my 13-inch MacBook Air M5 (16GB/512GB) in May during a Flipkart sale for around ₹98,000, with an SBI card offer pulling the price to what I believe was the lowest anyone paid for it. Turns out, I accidentally timed it perfectly.
Apple announced a sweeping price hike across MacBooks, iPads, HomePods, and Apple TV in India this week. The M5 MacBook Air in question now costs ₹30,000 more in the country via Apple and around ₹20,000 more via authorized third-party retailers, including Flipkart and Vijay Sales.
Also Read: Why the iPhone Escaped Apple’s Sudden Global Price Hikes
- New standard price across Apple’s website: ₹1,49,900
- New standard price across third-party ratilers: ₹1,19,900
In Apple’s own words: “The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage.” Apple added that it had “reached a point where we need to begin raising prices.”
How Bad Is The Hike?
| Product | Old price | New price | Hike |
| MacBook Air 13-inch (M5) | ₹1,19,900 | ₹1,49,900 | ₹30,000 |
| MacBook Air 15-inch (M5) | ₹1,44,900 | ₹1,79,900 | ₹35,000 |
| MacBook Pro 14-inch (M5) | ₹1,69,900 | ₹2,39,900 | ₹70,000 |
| MacBook Neo | ₹69,900 | ₹79,900 | ₹10,000 |
| iPad Air 11-inch (M4) | ₹64,900 | ₹89,900 | ₹25,000 |
Also Read: Apple TV 4K India Price Hiked Massively: Why it is No Longer a Great Deal
What Does This Mean If You Were Waiting?
Unfortunately, it means you’d have to pay a much higher price to get the same MacBook Air with the M5 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.
Even third-party retailers have increased their asking prices, reflecting a ₹20,000 increase over the previous discounted price. It still makes sense to get the device through third-party retailers, though, as their prices are better than Apple’s education pricing.
What’s odd is that the device isn’t available to order from most of the third-party retailers. I’m attaching some screenshots below for your reference.
Also Read: Oppo Reno 16 and Reno 16C India launch confirmed for July 2: Design, Specs, Leaked Pricing, and More
Does It Still Make Sense To Purchase The M5 MacBook Air?
If you were holding out for Big Billion Days this October, hoping for sub-₹1,00,000 pricing, I would not count on it. That window has likely closed. I got lucky with my Mac purchase, and I am genuinely not going to pretend otherwise.
However, it still makes sense to purchase the device, even at the increased third-party price of ₹1,19,900, or probably a bit less than that, including the card offers (not announced or confirmed at the moment). Windows laptops that provide comparable performance and battery life still cost well over that price.
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