Apple records strong growth in India

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that during the quarter, Apple India registered its record revenue and iPhone shipments. “We are bringing retail there and bringing online stores there and putting a significant amount of energy there. I’m very bullish on India, Cook said during Apple’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

Analysts attributed Apple’s growth to its aggressive promotion during the festive season sales. For example, the iPhone 13 was available under 50,000 during the first week of 2022 festive season sales in September last year, and it topped the shipment charts during last year’s festive season.

According to researcher Counterpoint, the iPhone 13 was the best-selling product in the overall Indian smartphone market last October. Apple was also a leader in the premium smartphone segment with devices priced above 30,000, capturing 50% of the market in the December quarter, also according to Counterpoint. Furthermore, it had a 42% market share for the whole of 2022. Samsung was second with 21% market share, followed by OnePlus with 11%. The share of premium devices was 16% of all devices in the December quarter and 11% for 2022.

The June and September quarters also set “all-time revenue records” for Apple in India. Its good December quarter performance in the country comes at a time when the Cupertino-based technology company saw a decline in global revenue in the December quarter. iphone production in china

“We feel very good about how we performed, and this is despite the headwinds we talked about. Taking a step back, India is an extremely exciting market for us and a key focus It is,” Cook said.

In the December quarter, Samsung led the overall phone market in India with 20% market share, according to Counterpoint’s quarterly shipment data published on January 27. Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme were the other brands in the top five with 18%, 18%, 11% and 8% market share respectively during this period. According to Counterpoint note, Apple was behind Realme in sixth place with around 8% market share for December quarter shipments. Apple’s total 2022 market share was 4.5%.

According to Prachir Singh, senior research analyst at Counterpoint, Apple’s wealth growth has also come amid a downturn in the overall smartphone industry. Singh said that while Apple’s market share grew by 12% in the December quarter from a year ago, the overall Indian smartphone industry saw a decline of 20% during the same period. According to industry analysts, Apple will ship nearly 7 million units during 2022—a 9% year-over-year decline that saw the rest of the smartphone industry ship 152 million units last year, Counterpoint reports. . ,

Sanyam Chaurasia, an analyst with market research firm Canalys, said Apple shipped 1.9 million iPhones in the December quarter and was the sixth leading smartphone vendor in India. Navkendar Singh, associate vice president of devices research at IDC, agreed, saying that the company “would have seen further growth through 2022, but shipments were held back as a result of supply chain concerns that forced Apple’s latest generation iPhone 14 Pro.” and Pro Max, last November”.

Apple’s success in India also stems from the fact that the country is emerging as a major manufacturing hub for iPhones. Apple is looking to expand production in India as it looks to diversify manufacturing and reduce dependence on China. Last month, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal had said at an industry event that Apple is planning to increase iPhone production in India to 25% from the current 5-7% of its total production.

“We are putting a lot of emphasis on the (Indian) market. From financing options and trade-ins to making products more affordable and giving people more options to buy, a lot has been done. There’s a lot going on,” Cook said.

In many markets, Apple already operates its flagship retail stores, called Apple Stores, as premium, user-friendly customer experience centers staffed with trained customer interaction specialists, called ‘geniuses’ , who provide technical support. Peppermint It reported on January 12 that Apple is recruiting employees for its offline stores, which are expected to open in Delhi and Mumbai in the first half of this year.

“One of the highlights of Apple’s results was a reinforcement of its commitment to bringing Apple retail to India. Faisal Kawoosa, principal analyst and founder of TechARC, tweeted on Friday: “You invest in retail only when you are confident about the market’s growth potential.”

Kawoosa said offline still accounts for 65% of smartphone sales to consumers. Counterpoint’s Singh agreed that “physical look-and-feel matters” more in the premium segment, giving offline sellers an incentive as concerns of the Covid-19 pandemic eased.

However, globally, Apple was unable to replicate its India success. The company’s total quarterly revenue declined 5% to $117.2 billion, making it the biggest quarterly decline for the company since 2016. Cook attributed the decline to a stronger dollar, production disruptions in China, which affected the supply of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the overall macroeconomic environment, which affected consumer spending.

iPad and Services were the only verticals that saw growth during the quarter. Revenue from iPad rose 30% to $9.4 billion, while services revenue rose 6.4% to $20.77 billion.