When would it ever be 'right' to spend ₹5 lakh on a phone?

Summary

Apple's ₹5 lakh iPhone Duo isn't just a bet on foldable technology. It's a test of whether the world's most valuable consumer tech brand can still sell exclusivity in a market where almost everyone has an iPhone.

Love it or hate it, you cannot ignore Apple's ability to generate hype around a product. The iPhone Duo is the ultimate litmus test for this, and after ample memes about it, almost everyone I've met in the 10-odd days I've had the phone has asked at least one question: is it really worth it?

To answer this question, it's important to understand a core philosophy that Steve Jobs once institutionalized.

Way back in the 1980s, Apple built itself on a core philosophy while building personal computers -- their products were meant to just work. A memorable snippet from his biography by Walter Isaacson highlighted how Jobs didn't want his devices to be tinkered with and mutilated by tentative screwdrivers. This, in turn, led the establishment of a design-led product movement that Apple has since embodied.

Fast forward to today, Apple is worth over $4 trillion, and its products enjoy a 'luxury' tag in the electronics market -- one that very few, such as Denmark's Bang & Olufsen and the American Sonos, have managed to retain.

In smartphones, one could argue that no one does lofty ambitions better than Apple. Over the past seven years, India has witnessed this transformation firsthand. Between 2019 and the end of 2025, Apple's annual iPhone sales in India grew nearly tenfold.

The sales boom has been great for Apple. But it has also created a problem: almost everyone seems to have an iPhone today. So what's the point, really?

The point, as the past 10 days have proved, appears to be Apple testing the waters with the iPhone Duo to see if it still commands the kind of social respect that will make its spotlight innovation stand a few lofty feet above everyone else. And while sales figures may tell one story, the Duo may not be about sales alone.

The reason for this, at the very core, is simple. Apple is far from being the first to launch a smartphone with a folding touchscreen display. In fact, its cross-Pacific rival Samsung was the first to launch a mainstream foldable smartphone, the original Galaxy Fold of 2019. Samsung, of course, holds the added advantage of the fact that it is also one of the world's largest display manufacturers, and holds some of the world's most advanced patents and proprietary technologies in the business.

Samsung, over the past seven years, has played in a field where it has been miles ahead of the competition. Apple, however, is the one firm that could shift all of that even after entering an industry after most names imaginable -- today, everyone starting from Vivo to Motorola already make and sell foldables, including in India.

But Apple knows that its most expensive phones aren't what drove its annual sales in India up nearly tenfold. That growth was largely driven by bargain-hunters buying iPhones launched two years earlier, often through no-interest instalment deals.

The iPhone Duo offers Apple something different: an opportunity to put a crown on the very top shelf and shine enough light on it to see if its halo still glows.

By now, there are ample consumer-end reviews of the iPhone Duo, and critics have had their say about it. But, truth be told, the iPhone Duo was never about the tech specs, or if it compared well against Google's Pixel Fold and Samsung's Galaxy Folds.

To go back to where we began, the iPhone Duo is an exercise and masterclass of Apple's marketing genius.

Yes, the iPhone Duo is a first-generation foldable phone that arrived many years after others, but interestingly, it appears to be the only one that put special emphasis on a very specific animation that happens if users pry it open -- or place it like a tent card atop a table.

In many ways, the iPhone Duo harks back to a time when gadgets were meant to be fun, and how much you could pay would determine how aspirational you were in a social circle. Think about the heydays of Nokia, and what the Nokia Communicator series was to the Finnish firm -- or perhaps even Vertu.

That, exactly, is how the iPhone Duo appears to be perceived today. Over the past 10 days, there have been envious eyes asking "how is it?", with the kind of glance that the world reserves for only a select few: somehow, Anne Hathaway and Charles Leclerc come to mind.

Mint's review of the iPhone Duo is out, and you should definitely give it a read. But to answer the question that we began with: would it ever be 'right' to spend-er, splurge-up to ₹5 lakh on a smartphone?

The thing is, it most likely won't ever be. But, much like a limited edition Goyard or Patek Philippe, some things are worth owning not by value, but because they feel like they would differentiate you. In many ways, the iPhone Duo feels a step in that direction, no matter how many glitches its software might have.

Beyond AI: Consistency over hubris, the tale of Ather's first profit

I first met Tarun Mehta, the co-founder of Ather Energy, at the startup's first ever launch event in Bengaluru eight years ago.

Mehta's Ather was five years old back then, and the company was venturing out with all-electric scooters that, at the time, were India's most expensive. In fact, Ather's 450X flagship scooter cost around ₹1.25 lakh -- at a time when Honda's popular Activa cost exactly half of this.

Double the pricing, from an unknown name, would in many cases qualify as hubris. But, Mehta must in some way have felt vindicated when on 26 October, it became the first two-wheeler startup in India to turn a quarterly profit.

While this week sees India return from the peak of festive season, it is Ather's story that catches the eye as one where a company followed clear governance and discipline, to carve a path to profitability.

Mehta himself admitted on a post-earnings analyst call that there is still much left to do, with sales growth the key priority. But one could argue that it is Mehta, far less vocal and flashy than his whites-wearing cross-town rival, who has made real business progress in a field dominated by legacy automotive giants.

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