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For some iPhone buyers in India, getting Apple’s brand-new iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max did not require lining up outside a store or waiting days for delivery. They needed only a few taps on a quick-commerce app to get one delivered to their doorstep in about 10 minutes. Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and BigBasket — platforms best known in India for delivering groceries and everyday essentials in minutes — began offering the new Pro models as they went on sale in the country on Friday. The phones are, however, also available through Apple’s usual sales channels, including its stores, authorized retailers, and online marketplaces. Putting a new iPhone on a 10-minute delivery app is not entirely new in India. Quick-commerce platforms have offered Apple’s latest devices on launch day previously as well, as they have steadily expanded beyond groceries into categories including electronics, beauty products, and fashion. However, the market behind those deliveries is growing rapidly. India’s quick-commerce sector reached about $9 billion in the first half of 2026, per a recent report by Redseer Strategy Consultants, with the number of monthly users rising to more than 60 million from 8 million three years ago. Google and Deloitte separately estimate the market could reach $50 billion by 2030, with non-food products such as electronics, fashion, and beauty accounting for 45% of spending. There were signs of strong demand on launch day. BigBasket said it delivered more than 300 iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max units in the first hour of sales. Instamart told TechCrunch that Bengaluru led the iPhone 18 Pro-series orders on its platform, followed by Delhi. The Burgundy 256 GB iPhone 18 Pro was Instamart’s most popular variant, accounting for nearly a third of its sales. Nonetheless, within hours of launch, availability of the new iPhones became patchy. TechCrunch found the iPhone 18 Pro models sold out on some quick-commerce platforms and in some locations, while they remained available for delivery elsewhere in cities including Delhi and Bengaluru. Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, said the launch-day deliveries showed that quick commerce could work as a channel for premium smartphones in India’s biggest cities, even though volumes remain small compared with overall iPhone sales. The ability to fulfill high-value smartphone orders provides an “early proof of concept,” Pathak told TechCrunch. “The key question is whether this launch-driven demand can translate into regular smartphone purchases through quick-commerce platforms.” Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at IDC, said India stood out globally for this kind of quick-commerce delivery and was particularly suited to such purchases because consumers in major cities had built trust in the platforms by using them regularly for everyday purchases. Official tie-ups between brands and the platforms also gave consumers greater confidence in buying expensive products through them, he told TechCrunch. For a product like the iPhone, the appeal also comes down to “instant gratification,” Singh said, allowing buyers to avoid queues outside stores or waiting several days for an online order to arrive. Still, he cautioned that quick commerce was not yet a significant sales channel for smartphones. Its role around new iPhone releases is largely a “launch-day marketing phenomenon” that “creates good noise around the launch,” he said.
document fetched 2026-09-19 02:57 · canonical https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/18/in-india-the-new-iphone-can-arrive-faster-than-a-pizza