iPhone sales aid Apple to set record in India

NEW DELHI: Apple has set a June quarter records in India, driven by the robust sales of iPhones, its CEO Tim Cook has said.

Apple posted quarterly revenue of $81.8 billion, down 1 percent year over year. Cook said the performance of “our new stores in India this spring exceeded our expectations”. Apple opened its own-branded Mumbai and Delhi retail stores in the country in April this year, which met with great enthusiasm.

On the potential of India, Cook said: “You know we did hit a June quarter revenue record in India and we grew strong double digits. We also opened our first two retail stores during the quarter and of course it’s early going currently, but they are currently beating our expectations in terms of how they are doing”.

He further said the company continues to work on building out the channel and putting more investment in its direct-to-consumer offers in the country. “If you look at it, it’s the second largest smartphone market in the world and we ought to be doing really well there and we are very pleased with our growth there,” said Cook

“We still have a very, very modest and low share in this smartphone market, so I think it’s a huge opportunity for us. And we are putting in all of our energies to make that occur,” he added. Apple, with the highest average selling price (ASP) of $929, registered a massive 61 per cent YoY growth in India in April-June period, according to the IDC.

India is now among Apple’s top 5 markets globally as the iPhone maker continued to lead the ultra-premium segment (Rs 45,000 and above).

The company has also broken local manufacturing records. In May, iPhone exports reached a record Rs 10,000 crore, pushing the total mobile shipments from the country to Rs 12,000 crore in that month.

India is set to cross Rs 1,20,000 crore in mobile phone exports in the current fiscal year driven by tech giant Apple.