KOLKATA: iPhone sales shot up in India in the three days immediately following demonetisation as consumers rushed to buy these devices with their phasedout high-denomination notes and stores booked sales through back-dated receipts. As per trade estimates, over 1 lakh iPhones were sold in these three days, which is around three-fourth of this handset’s average monthly sales.The spurt in iPhone sales mirrored the demand for gold and high-value luxury items that shot up in the first few days following the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on the evening of November 8.“iPhones were sold out in most of the neighbourhood stores after demonetisation. In fact, on that night (of November 8) itself several stores sold iPhones till midnight. Some even sold them at a premium,” said the owner of a leading neighbourhood cellphone store in New Delhi.The rush to offload cancelled currency notes by buying these expensive handsets has resulted in Apple being the only phone maker to meet sales target in November. Its sales during the month are estimated to have grown by 20-30% while handset sales, as a whole, are down compared with the year-ago period, said four industry executives.Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research’s senior analyst Tarun Pathak said the Indian smartphone market will contract by 10% in October-December due to demonetisation. Apple India was on course to reach its estimate of selling 1million iPhones in the quarter. It had shipped 4 lakh handsets in October, according to Counterpoint.The newly launched iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sell in India for Rs 60,000 to Rs 92,000 and are the most expensive handsets available in the market. “There is still a novelty factor for iPhones amongst Indian consumers since it is the costliest handset, and people were buying multiple units for themselves and to gift,” said Subhash Chandra, managing director of South India’s leading cellphone retailer Sangeetha Mobiles.Chandra said large retailers and chains like his own stopped accepting old notes after the demonetisation announcementand even saw a fall in sales. But subsequently, they reported surge in demand for iPhones due to decline of grey market, easy availability of consumer finance and wider acceptance of credit cards and digital payment at their stores. “iPhones had a vibrant grey market that completely disappeared after demonetisation, boosting sales in large retail chains,” said Subhasish Mohanty, who heads the business at 450 stores of the chains Spice Hotspot, Mobiliti World and UniverCell.A percentage of iPhones sold in the grey market is sourced from online channels. But with ecommerce companies stopping cash-on-delivery sales, supply of these phones dried up.iPhone sales in November were further boosted by adequate availability of iPhone 7 Plus in the market. In October, Apple had miscalculated demand for the bigger handsets.