Apple’s higher iPhone 18 Pro pricing may initially concern Indian buyers, but mature consumers, financing, longer upgrade cycles, and premium competition could support demand. The Rs 3 lakh iPhone Duo will remain aspirational, generating attention and halo value rather than significant sales volumes.
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.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.
