Apple is expected to announce its quarter results on January 27 and pundits expect India to make a prominent appearance in the company’s data.
The tech giant had its best quarter yet in India, having shipped 1.5 million iPhones in the country for the quarter ended December 2020 – a marked 100 percent growth year-on-year (YoY), as per data from CyberMedia and Counterpoint.
They added that Apple doubled its market share in India to 4 percent largely due to improved sales of older units such as iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and the iPhone XR, and new models like the iPhone SE, Tech Crunch reported.
For CY20, the company sold a combined 3.2 million iPhone devices in India – a 60 percent YoY jump, Counterpoint added.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the data.
Shipment growth follows Apple’s launch of its online store in India, which gave customers offers such as financing and upgrade options, free Airpods with iPhone 11, etc. Notably, the company has planned to launch its first offline store in the country this year.
Historically, Apple has struggled to sell a significant number of mobile devices in India due to the cost factor – each priced $100-200, against much more affordable offerings in the market from Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
But the company has made moves to now produce devices locally, which has lowered prices of some older units – which were the devices that boosted sales.
Shipped units however continue to be expensive, even priced much higher in India than in the US – e.g. the iPhone 12 Pro Max costs $1,781 in India against $1,099 in the US, AirPods Pro costs $341 ($249), AirPods Max sells for $815 ($549). In a country with annual average salaries of around $2,000 – the expense is immense.