Apple achieves a 100% market share increase in India
- Apple announced that they have doubled their market share in the world's second biggest smartphone market.
- They saw a massive increase in the shipment of iPhone units in Q4 of 2020.
- The company continues working hard to establish their base in India.
India as an example, we doubled our business (from 2% to 4%) last quarter compared to the year-ago quarter. But the absolute level of business there is still quite low given the size of the opportunity. Other markets like that as well. The other thing from a market point of view, we've been on a multi-year effort in enterprise and have gained quite a bit of traction there. Some of the things in Luca's comments and we comment some on it each quarter. We're very optimistic on what we can do in that space. New things that we're not going to talk about that we think will contribute to the company as well just like other new things have contributed nicely in the past. We see lots of opportunity. — Apple
The reports show roughly 1.5 million iPhone units were shipped by Apple in Q4 of 2020, which is a 100% increase year-on-year, making it their best quarter yet. This was mainly due to improved sales of iPhone 11, iPhone XR, iPhone 12, and the second generation iPhone SE. This overall accounted for more than 3.2 million iPhone units shipped in 2020, which was a 60% increase year-on-year.
These results were actually due to some recent steps taken by Apple in India, including the launch of a regional online store in September 2020. The arrival of Apple’s online store brought a better shopping experience for customers, with financing options and AppleCare+ support options available. Apple has also recently begun trial production of the iPhone 12 in India, with plans of full production beginning in 2021, according to reports. This would make it the first high-end ‘Made in India’ iPhone. Apple is even planning to open retail stores within India in the near future, which is expected to boost sales of Apple products in the country significantly.
Over the years, Apple has struggled a lot to set its feet in the world’s second largest smartphone market. This is mainly due to big competition from rivals such as Vivo, Oppo, Samsung, Xiaomi, and so on, which have dominated the market with their more affordable handsets.
For more than a decade, Apple has struggled to sell its handsets in India because of the expensive price tags they carry. Most smartphones that ship in India are priced between $100 to $200. Samsung, and a group of Chinese smartphone vendors including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo flooded the market in the past decade with their affordable smartphones.
However, since this pandemic, Apple has been taking advantage of the Indian government's ‘Made in India’ initiative to increase its regional manufacturing base. By shifting their production from countries like China and Vietnam to India, Apple has been able to save import duty costs and pass on the savings to customers. Earlier in the year, Apple faced various challenges at one of their iPhone plants in the country.
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Published to Apple Scoop on 30th January, 2021.
