In India, the new iPhone can arrive faster than a pizza
In India, the new iPhone can arrive faster than a pizza. 25% off tickets now Back by popular demand: Save up to $300 on Disrupt Close Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch Commerce In India, the new iPhone can arrive faster than a pizza Jagmeet Singh 10:45 AM PDT · September 18, 2026 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.
What happened
Availability of Apple's iPhone 18 Pro series turned patchy within hours of its debut on India's quick-commerce apps. Putting a new iPhone on a 10-minute delivery app is not entirely new in India. 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. 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.
Topics Apple, BigBasket, Blinkit, Commerce, India, Instamart, iPhone 18, Swiggy, Zepto When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Image source, Nur Photo via Getty ImagesImage caption, India's government says 56 glacial lakes had been classified as "very high risk"BySoutik BiswasIndia correspondentPublished13 September 2026The Himalayas are approaching a dangerous threshold as glaciers melt faster, glacial lakes grow more unstable and the mountains face a widening gap in monitoring, according to new research.
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 wider picture
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. 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. “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.
Its role around new iPhone releases is largely a “launch-day marketing phenomenon” that “creates good noise around the launch,” he said.
What has been reported
Jagmeet Singh Reporter Jagmeet covers startups, tech policy-related updates, and all other major tech-centric developments from India for TechCrunch. Himalayan glaciers are now losing mass 65% faster than they were a decade ago, the report by global consultancy Systemiq, produced with the Integrated Mountain Initiative and with technical contributions from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, says. Image source, ReutersImage caption, A glacial lake outburst in 2023 triggered a flash flood, causing extensive damage in SikkimIndia already has evidence of the scale of the risk.
Some 18% of Indian land is Himalayan, yet the region accounts for about 35% of disasters, according to the report. The government told parliament in July that 56 glacial lakes had been classified as "very high risk", external following a 2025 scientific assessment of 189 high-risk lakes in the Indian Himalayan region. The Central Water Commission is monitoring 2,485 glacial lakes larger than 10 hectares across India's Himalayan river basins, the government said. It estimates that Himalayan water underpins roughly 20% of India's GDP, sustaining wheat, rice, tea, hydropower and pilgrimage economies.
"Image source, Corbis via Getty ImagesImage caption, The Indian Himalayan region receives roughly 400 million visits a year"This is national and international infrastructure," he said, warning that the ecological system underpinning it is "approaching a tipping point".
What happens next
Unlike global greenhouse-gas emissions, black-carbon pollution is a lever that India and its neighbours can act on directly, the report argues. "Glaciers are melting faster than they were a decade ago. The Indian Himalayan region receives roughly 400 million tourist visits a year, according to the report, and researchers argue that the objective should shift from maximising visitor numbers towards generating value that is retained and reinvested locally. Related topicsIndiaThe HimalayasGlaciersNepalClimateFloods Disrupt 2026: OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and more take over 6 industry stages.
They needed only a few taps on a quick-commerce app to get one delivered to their doorstep in about 10 minutes. The phones are, however, also available through Apple’s usual sales channels, including its stores, authorized retailers, and online marketplaces.
The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across techcrunch.com, bbc.co.uk. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.