As new 4-inch iPhone SE was a huge disaster, to compensate the losses faced by it, Apple has reportedly decided to hike the price of its iPhones in India by 29 per cent.

In India, iPhone SE base 16GB variant was decided to be offered for Rs. 39000. But iPhone 6 16GB costs only Rs. 31000 and on the other side, current generation iPhone 6S (base model) costs around Rs 40,000. Much to the expectations of many, this put the iPhone SE in threat.

A source says, “It was felt that SE, which was criticized for having a 'high price tag', will not be able to see much traction if prices of bigger-sized iPhone 6 and 6S devices are not corrected. So, the decision was taken to revise the price upwards.”

Adding to this, reportedly, Apple also decided to withdraw a few of the discounts it was offering on its iPhones from this year January.

After the hikes are implemented, the iPhone 6 price could go up to Rs 40,000 and to the shock, iPhone 6S could go all the way up to Rs 48,000.

Reportedly, if the company is still not satisfied, then it would think upon hiking iPhone 5S by 22 per cent. (Apple is trying to wind off 5S phone, after its stock is done away).

Apple has recently started a corporate leasing programme for few of its iPhones.

Under this programme, the company offers iPhone SE for just Rs. 999 per month, iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6S for Rs 1,199 and Rs 1,399 per month for two years. But after the latest hikes takes effect, how the leasing programme prices change, is yet to be seen.

By Phani Ch