iPhone Duo Price Sparks Memes: ‘One Kidney’ Not Enough, Say Internet Users

After every Apple event, social media is flooded with memes about the cost of the latest devices. The usual jokes about selling a kidney tend to appear, accompanied by calculations of what else could be bought for the same amount of money.

But this time, the iPhone Duo has taken price-related jokes a step further, leaving users wondering how many jobs they would need to afford one.

Apple's first foldable iPhone starts at 299,900 rupees in India, a figure that has sparked plenty of conversation among X users. Soon after its launch, the phone's price became the subject of memes comparing it to cars, gold, household expenses, and even other Apple products.

The iPhone Duo's price tag of nearly 300,000 rupees sparks a wave of memes.

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo on September 9, marking its entry into the foldable iPhone market. The phone features a 7.6-inch inner display and a 5.4-inch outer display, and is available with up to 2 TB of storage.

However, while Apple focused on the new design and features, X users quickly zeroed in on another figure: 299,900 rupees. This is the starting price for the 256 GB model. The 512 GB version costs 324,900 rupees, while the 1 TB variant is priced at 374,900 rupees. The high-end 2TB model costs 449,900 rupees in India.

That price difference gave social media users plenty of material for comparisons.

One user wrote, "Apple when a middle-class person tries to buy the iPhone Duo," and shared the famous "Tera ghar jaayenga ismai" meme (implying the price is so high you’d have to sell your house to afford it). The meme turned the phone's price into a joke about what a buyer would have to sacrifice to own it. The classic joke about selling a kidney to buy an iPhone was also updated after the iPhone Duo's price was revealed. One user pointed out that selling just one kidney is no longer enough: "Apple's foldable iPhone Duo starts at 300,000 rupees. The kidney joke doesn't work anymore; we need a whole portfolio of organs to afford this iPhone Duo."

Another X user decided to look at the price from a different angle, considering what else could be bought for nearly 300,000 rupees. They wrote: "The iPhone Duo costs nearly 300,000 rupees in India. For the price of a ‘single’ phone, you could: buy a decent used car; buy a good motorcycle; buy about 20 grams of gold; pay a year's rent in many Indian cities; cover the cost of your brother or sister's wedding feast; buy a fridge, air conditioner, TV, washing machine, and sofa; take your parents on vacation; buy 10 to 15 Android phones in perfect condition; invest the money in a fixed deposit and make your father proud for once... Or, spend 300,000 rupees on an iPhone that folds."

The jokes weren't limited to the phone's price; users also brought salary calculations and monthly instalment (EMI) figures into the conversation. Apple's Indian website offers interest-free instalment (EMI) options for the iPhone Duo. The 256GB model lists an initial monthly instalment of 48,817 rupees, while the 512GB version starts at 52,983 rupees per month. The 1TB model is listed starting at 61,317 rupees per month, and the 2TB version begins at 73,817 rupees per month, based on the displayed plans.

One user pointed this out, writing: "The iPhone Duo has two screens because one isn't enough to display all the monthly installments ."

Another user commented: "The iPhone Duo is so expensive that financial influencers are already having heart attacks calculating the salary-to-instalment ratio for their next short video."

For the price of an iPhone Duo, in India you could buy a MacBook Neo, an iPad, an iPhone 17 AirPods and an Apple Watch Series 10. Still have money left over.

While the starting price had already sparked memes the top‑tier iPhone Duo model gave social media another number to joke about. The 2TB iPhone Duo costs 449,900 rupees in India, which's 150,000 rupees more than the base iPhone Duo. One user wrote about this: "The Indian employees annual CTC." Pre‑orders for the iPhone Duo in India start at 5:30 PM IST on October 16 and sales for the iPhone Duo begin on October 23.

Pre-orders for the iPhone Duo in India begin at 5:30 PM (IST) on October 16, with sales starting on October 23.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kahekashan

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Kahekashan is a passionate technophile with a keen eye for cutting-edge gadgets, emerging technologies, and everything in the digital realm. Raised in a Defence family with strong values and a background in literature, she has consistently pursued excellence in every endeavour. Her last full-time assignment involved content writing with the Indian School of Business.

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