In India, the new iPhone can arrive faster than a pizza

For immoderate iPhone buyers successful India, getting Apple’s brand-new iPhone 18 Pro oregon iPhone 18 Pro Max did not necessitate lining up extracurricular a store oregon waiting days for delivery. They needed lone a fewer taps connected a quick-commerce app to get 1 delivered to their doorstep successful astir 10 minutes.

Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and BigBasket — platforms champion known successful India for delivering groceries and mundane essentials successful minutes — began offering the caller Pro models arsenic they went connected merchantability successful the state connected Friday. The phones are, however, besides disposable done Apple’s accustomed income channels, including its stores, authorized retailers, and online marketplaces.

Putting a caller iPhone connected a 10-minute transportation app is not wholly caller successful India. Quick-commerce platforms person offered Apple’s latest devices connected motorboat time antecedently arsenic well, arsenic they person steadily expanded beyond groceries into categories including electronics, quality products, and fashion.

However, the marketplace down those deliveries is increasing rapidly. India’s quick-commerce assemblage reached astir $9 billion successful the archetypal fractional of 2026, per a caller study by Redseer Strategy Consultants, with the fig of monthly users rising to much than 60 cardinal from 8 cardinal 3 years ago. Google and Deloitte separately estimation the marketplace could reach $50 cardinal by 2030, with non-food products specified arsenic electronics, manner and quality accounting for 45% of spending.

There were signs of beardown request connected motorboat day. BigBasket said it delivered much than 300 iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max units successful the archetypal hr of sales. Instamart told TechCrunch that Bengaluru led the iPhone 18 Pro-series orders connected its platform, followed by Delhi. The Burgundy 256 GB iPhone 18 Pro was Instamart’s astir fashionable variant, accounting for astir a 3rd of its sales.

Nonetheless, wrong hours of launch, availability of the caller iPhones became patchy. TechCrunch recovered the iPhone 18 Pro models sold retired connected immoderate quick-commerce platforms and successful immoderate locations, portion they remained disposable for transportation elsewhere successful cities including Delhi and Bengaluru.

Tarun Pathak, probe manager astatine Counterpoint Research, said the launch-day deliveries showed that speedy commerce could enactment arsenic a transmission for premium smartphones successful India’s biggest cities, adjacent though volumes stay tiny compared with wide iPhone sales.

The quality to fulfill high-value smartphone orders provides an “early impervious of concept,” Pathak told TechCrunch. “The cardinal question is whether this launch-driven request tin construe into regular smartphone purchases done quick-commerce platforms.”

Navkendar Singh, subordinate vice president astatine IDC, said India stood retired globally for this benignant of quick-commerce transportation and was peculiarly suited to specified purchases due to the fact that consumers successful large cities had built spot successful the platforms by utilizing them regularly for mundane purchases. Official tie-ups betwixt brands and the platforms besides gave consumers greater assurance successful buying costly products done them, helium told TechCrunch.

For a merchandise similar the iPhone, the entreaty besides comes down to “instant gratification,” Singh said, allowing buyers to debar queues extracurricular stores oregon waiting respective days for an online bid to arrive. Still, helium cautioned that speedy commerce was not yet a important income transmission for smartphones. Its relation astir caller iPhone releases is mostly a “launch-day selling phenomenon” that “creates bully sound astir the launch,” helium said.