Apple had its best year ever in world's fastest growing smartphone market
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s desperate bet to make India its next big market is starting to pay off.
Last year was Apple’s best year in India. The company shipped about 2.5 million iPhones in the country, according to figures from the marketing research firm Counterpoint. The firm told Mashable India that Apple had shipped 2 million units in the previous calendar year.
More interestingly, however, Apple has started to dominate in the premium segment of India’s smartphone market. In last quarter if 2016, Apple's iPhones accounted for 62 percent of all premium smartphones shipped.
The company gained momentum in the fourth quarter of 2016, the data reveals, adding that Apple sold about a third of the iPhones between the period of October and December.
The surge in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter is even so more impressive as other smartphone manufacturers in the same period suffered a substantial drop in their sales. According to IDC, for instance, smartphone sales within the leading 50 cities of India dropped by 30.5 percent month on month in November over October.
India’s unexpected move to invalidate much of its cash and reissue new currency weeks later created a cash crunch in the market, with people becoming more conscious about how they spent their money.
However, soon after the announcement was made on Nov. 8. evening, many rushed to the store to use their soon-to-be invalid bills to purchase Apple products, according to earlier reports. Also, Apple may have been able to leverage on India's festive period, something it invested a lot of money on in marketing.
But for Apple, this momentum also signals a growing awareness and acceptance from India, where it has started to invest heavily. On his maiden visit to India as CEO, Tim Cook last year announced a new iOS app design and development accelerator in Bangalore, and opened a map development office in Hyderabad.
However, Cook had bigger motives in mind. He met with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and government officials, expressing desires to expand the business in the country.
Apple faces a number of challenges in India, considering it accounts for just 2.5 percent of the entire smartphone market. The pricing of its iPhones is one of the most expensive in the world while the market is skewed towards smartphones priced under $150.
Apple had planned to counter that by selling refurbished iPhones, which was rejected by the Indian government, which wants the iPhone maker to set up a local manufacturing facility.
For Apple, perhaps the biggest driving force for iPhone sales hinges upon a meeting set to take place today. Executives from Apple will be meeting Indian government officials, where Apple will be reiterating its plans to manufacture iPhones and other products in India, and hoping to get some tax concessions and other benefits. Several government officials, however, are reportedly not a big fan of this proposal.
