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BigBasket delivered more than 300 launch-day iPhone 18 Pros in its first hour
Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart and BigBasket all carried Apple's new Pro models on the day they went on sale in India, with stock patchy within hours. Counterpoint and IDC both say the volumes are still small.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy's Instamart and BigBasket all began offering the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max as the phones went on sale in India on Friday, with delivery promised in about 10 minutes.
- BigBasket said it delivered more than 300 iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max units in the first hour of sales.
- TechCrunch found that within hours the Pro models had sold out on some platforms and in some locations, while stock remained available elsewhere in cities including Delhi and Bengaluru.
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Why it matters
- contradiction The two analysts in the story do not carry the same conclusion: Counterpoint treats the deliveries as early evidence a premium channel can work, while IDC says quick commerce is not yet a significant smartphone channel at all.
- decision Hardware and retail teams now have to decide how much launch allocation leaves their own stores and authorized retail for platforms that were selling the same SKUs the same day.
- exposure Local stock is set by the platform, so the buyer who taps at 3pm and sees an out-of-stock listing is having the brand's launch day defined by somebody else's warehouse.
- precedent With non-food projected at 45% of a $50 billion market by 2030, a launch-day electronics listing on these apps becomes a line item that brand planners are expected to fill.
The buyer who opened Instamart in Bengaluru on Friday and chose the Burgundy 256 GB iPhone 18 Pro picked what nearly a third of that platform's Pro-series buyers picked [10]. Bengaluru sent more of those orders than any other city on Instamart, with Delhi second [9].
Buyers ordered a phone from the app they use for groceries and took delivery at the door in about ten minutes [1]. A retail team writes in the launch review that a premium channel opened. Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, told TechCrunch the launch-day deliveries were an "early proof of concept" [13], and said volumes remain small compared with overall iPhone sales [12]. "The key question is whether this launch-driven demand can translate into regular smartphone purchases through quick-commerce platforms," he said [14].
Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at IDC, went further. He said India stood out globally for this kind of delivery, and that buyers in major cities were suited to it because everyday ordering had built trust in the platforms, with official brand tie-ups adding confidence on expensive products [15]. The pull, he said, is "instant gratification" for someone who wants to skip the queue outside a store and the multi-day wait for an online order [16]. He also said quick commerce was not yet a significant sales channel for smartphones, and that its role around new iPhone releases is largely a "launch-day marketing phenomenon" that "creates good noise around the launch" [17].
Redseer put India's quick commerce at about $9 billion in the first half of 2026, with monthly users above 60 million against 8 million three years ago, an increase of at least 7.5 times [5][6][1]. Google and Deloitte estimate the market could reach $50 billion by 2030, with non-food products such as electronics, fashion and beauty at 45% of spending [7]. At those figures, non-food is about $22.5 billion [2].
For anyone deciding how much launch allocation goes to these apps, here is what separates a placement from a channel. Will the platform report anything past hour one: units in week six, same buyer, no launch behind it? And does the order win a sale or relocate one, since the same phones were on sale that day through Apple's stores, authorized retailers and online marketplaces [3]? Pathak's question about repeat purchase is answerable with data the platforms already hold. The launch-day disclosures stop at the first hour [8].
What to watch
- Whether any platform publishes a smartphone repeat-purchase figure.
- Whether Apple and the platforms disclose the terms of their official tie-ups and how local allocation is set for the next launch.
- Whether non-food share of Indian quick-commerce spending tracks toward the 45% Google and Deloitte project for 2030.