When Apple reports its earnings on Wednesday, you can expect references to India on the conference call.
Apple sold more than 1.5 million iPhone units in India in the quarter ended in December, a 100% year-over-year increase, making this its best quarter in the largest smartphone market in the world to date, according to companies Counterpoint and CyberMedia search engine.
Thanks to the increase in sales from the previous generation of the iPhone 11, iPhone XR, iPhone 12 and the new iPhone SE, Apple doubled its market share in India to 4% in the quarter, the research companies said.
Overall, Apple sold more than 3.2 million iPhone units in India in 2020, an increase of 60% year-on-year, Counterpoint said.
The growth in shipments comes months after Apple launched its online store in the country and offered customers a wide range of financing and upgrade options, AppleCare +, and profitable benefits, such as a free set of AirPods with the purchase of the iPhone 11. The company plans to open its first physical retail store in the country later this year.
For more than a decade, Apple has struggled to sell its devices in India because of the expensive prices they charge. Most smartphones sold in India are priced between $ 100 and $ 200. Samsung and a group of Chinese smartphone vendors including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have flooded the market in the past decade with their affordable smartphones.
However, in recent years, Apple has become noticeably more interested in the country which is also one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The company’s contract manufacturers today assemble a variety of iPhone models and some accessories locally – an effort that the company kicked off more than two years ago. (A recent violent event at an Indian facility by Wistron, one of Apple’s contract manufacturers, however, highlighted some of the challenges that Apple will face when trying to scale its local production efforts in the country.)
This change allowed Apple to lower the prices of some older generation iPhone models in India, where for years the company passed on import fees to customers. The starting price for the iPhone 12 Pro Max is $ 1,781 in India, compared to $ 1,099 in the U.S. (Apple has not yet started assembling iPhone 12 units locally). AirPods Pro, which sells for $ 249 in the U.S., was made available in India for $ 341 at the time of launch. AirPods Max, likewise, costs $ 815 in India, compared to $ 549 in the US (it doesn’t help that an average person in India earns $ 2,000 a year.)
Unlike most foreign companies that offer their products and services for free in India or at some of the cheapest prices in the world, Apple has focused entirely on a small fraction of the population that can pay a lot of money, Jayanth Kolla, chief analyst at Convergence Catalyst, told TechCrunch.
This is not to say that Apple has not made any changes to its pricing strategy for India. The monthly cost of Apple Music is $ 1.35 in India, compared to $ 9.99 in the United States. The Apple One package, which includes Apple Music, TV +, Arcade and iCloud, costs $ 2.65 per month in India.