In a return that was surprising even for the Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple has gained double of what it got in the corresponding quarter last year.
Business analysts predict that Apple will be touching $3 billion in revenue in India alone by the end of March 31, 2018. The last available India revenue data from the Registrar of Companies is for 2015-16, and that was Rs 9,900 crore.
Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research had noted that September quarter sales are usually low for Apple in India. However, the opening up of different online sale channels has made a huge difference in the revenue for Apple.
Tarun said that about 60% of the units sold consisted of the older and cheaper units. Going by the reception for iPhone X and iPad, it could end the year at No. 3 by value for calendar year 2017, behind Samsung and Xiaomi.
Apple’s revenue includes that from iPhones, iPads, personal computers, and services, like music and apps. Services is said to account for only about 5% of revenue in India. Apple only has a 3% market share in overall smartphone unit sales, but in value it is much higher because of the high prices of its products.
With India becoming one of the fastest growing markets for iPad sales with a whooping growth rate of 39% in here alone, the news may not have been that much surprising. China is right behind us with a 25% increase in sales.
Tim Cook says that the opportunity in India is huge. In order to grow the market the company has to do multiple things like local manufacturing, promoting retail channels, establishing offline outlets and building a developer ecosystem. The recently launched iPhone X, priced above rupees 90k, was sold-out in a few minutes on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.
“Growing a market like India is a result of all of those things and maintaining them all well. And so it’s akin to the many years that we put into China,” Cook said.
Apple, which started manufacturing iPhones in India six months ago, has managed to reduce the price of some of its models. This has considerably reduced the development charges, taxes and shipment charges.
Apple reported revenue of $52.6 billion for the latest quarter — a 12% growth rate for the company. Its market capitalisation briefly touched $900 billion on Friday, and some expect it to become the first company ever to touch a trillion dollars in market cap.
In response to a question on India, Cook said the bandwidth issues in the country are being addressed, “and between the large carriers there with Bharti Airtel and now Jio investing the way they are, the service in India is materially better than it was just 12 months ago. So there’s been a sea change there in a short period of time. So I feel good about all that, but we have a long way to go,” Cook said. India accounts for less than 2% of overall global revenue.
