Apple just had its best quarter in India – ProWellTech

When Apple reports its profits on Wednesday, you can expect mentions of India on the call.

According to research firms Counterpoint and CyberMedia, Apple shipped more than 1.5 million iPhone devices in India in the quarter ended December, a year-over-year increase of 100%. This is the best quarter in the world’s largest smartphone market to date.

Thanks to improved sales of the iPhone 11, iPhone XR, iPhone 12, and the newer, older generation iPhone SE, Apple doubled its market share in India to 4% in the quarter.

In total, Apple shipped more than 3.2 million iPhone devices in India in 2020, up 60% year over year, according to Counterpoint.

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 lucrative perks like a free set of AirPods when they bought the iPhone 11 later this year the country’s first physical retail store opens.

For more than a decade, Apple has struggled selling its phones in India because of their expensive price tags. Most smartphones shipping in India cost between $ 100 and $ 200. Samsung and a group of Chinese smartphone vendors including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have flooded the market with their affordable smartphones over the past decade.

Even so, Apple has visibly shown more interest in the country in recent years, which is also one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The company’s contract manufacturers are now on site assembling a number of iPhone models and some accessories – an effort the company began more than two years ago. (However, a recent violent incident at an Indian plant in Wistron, one of Apple’s contract manufacturers, underscored some of the challenges Apple will face in expanding its local manufacturing efforts in the country.)

This move has allowed Apple to lower the prices of some older generation iPhone models in India, where the company has been passing import duties on to customers for years. The starting price for the iPhone 12 Pro Max is $ 1,781 in India, compared to $ 1,099 in the US (Apple has not yet assembled the iPhone 12 devices on site). The AirPods Pro, which sells in the US for $ 249, was made available in India at the time of launch at $ 341. AirPods Max is $ 815 in India and $ 549 in the US (It doesn’t help that the average person in India makes $ 2,000 a year.)

Unlike most overseas companies who offer their products and services for free in India or at some of the world’s cheapest prices, Apple has focused entirely on a small segment of the population who can afford to pay a lot of money, Jayanth Kolla , Chief Analyst at Convergence Catalyst, said ProWellTech.

That’s not to say Apple hasn’t changed its pricing strategy for India. The monthly cost of Apple Music in India is $ 1.35 compared to $ 9.99 in the US. The Apple One package, which includes Apple Music, TV +, Arcade, and iCloud, costs $ 2.65 per month in India.