Device Based Pricing: Fair Practice or Silent Exploitation?

Yesterday I learned something unsettling about how digital pricing really works—and it wasn’t from a headline. It was from my own iPhone.

YouTube Premium showed me a price of ₹189 when I tried subscribing through the app. The same subscription, same account, on my desktop Chrome browser? Cheaper. No fine print. No explanation. Just two different prices for one service.

That’s not a rumor. That’s a business model.

And it made me wonder: if one subscription quietly costs more depending on the device I use… what about every other app I rely on? Uber. Food delivery. Instant commerce. Are we being “value priced” simply because we use an iPhone?

Because if that’s the case, we’re not paying for convenience.

We’re paying for ignorance.

Platform based pricing isn’t just a grey area anymore—it’s a shadow economy hiding in plain sight. No regulation. No accountability. No transparency. Just a silent assumption that consumers won’t question a price tag as long as the service works.

But here’s the problem:

When two people pay different prices for the exact same digital product, it’s no longer about affordability. It’s about fairness. And fairness is supposed to be the foundation of any ethical trade practice.

This isn’t outrage. It’s awareness.

Because the moment consumers start asking why, the industry must start answering how.

And I think we’re long overdue for answers.

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