“Smartphone appetite among consumers of one of the most populous countries of the world, India, has been increasing. In the first quarter of 2013, smartphone shipments to the country rose by 64% year-over-year to 5.7 million units,” Sarfaraz A. Khan writes for Seeking Alpha.
“Although Apple’s impressive growth in the country poses no significant threat to Samsung, but it will certainly create problems for Nokia, LG, HTC and Sony in India’s smartphone sector,” Khan writes. “India is the second most populous country in the world with a growing middle class but the smartphone’s share of the total mobile market is very low, as identified by SA contributor Sneha Shah, coming in at below 10%. Its neighbor China has a relatively lower smartphone penetration of 25%, but is still significantly ahead of India. By comparison, the American smartphone penetration has reached 61%. Besides the U.S, there are five other developed countries with smartphone penetration of more than 50%.”
Khan writes, “Apple was already offering discounts on its older version of phones. Then it started offering another 18% cash discount which took the total discount to around 25%; making its phones more attractive to Indian customers. According to some recent reports, these measures have been well received by the market as Apple’s monthly sales have risen by as much 400% from just 75,000 to nearly 400,000 units per month. I believe that this is huge achievement for Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple’s iPhone sales in India have soared up to 400% with aggressive new campaign – May 31, 2013
Apple intros new incentives to make iPhone more affordable in India – May 20, 2013
Analyst: Samsung, BlackBerry marketing tends to mentally enslave the Indian consumer – May 16, 2013
Apple and Samsung locked in smartphone price war in India – or are they? – April 16, 2013
Apple starts a ‘cashback’ smartphone price war with heavy discounted iPhone 4 in India – April 12, 2013
Apple iPhone 4 sales triple in India on new buyback program – April 11, 2013
Apple to triple exclusive stores in India to 200 locations by 2015, sources say – March 26, 2013
Apple cracks India’s smartphone market – March 13, 2013
Apple signals emerging-market rethink with India push – February 25, 2013
Apple’s iPhone sales in India rise four-fold in 3 months – February 8, 2013
Apple launches iTunes Store in Russia, Turkey, India, South Africa and 52 additional countries – December 4, 2012
Apple iPhone 5 coming to India on November 2, App Store adopts rupee pricing – October 26, 2012
Apple counters cheap Android phones in India by relaunching unlocked iPhone 3GS – June 28, 2011
High prices for Apple iPhone 3G in India causes disappointment, outrage – August 25, 2008
Apple faces big challenges in bringing iPhone to India, world’s fastest growing mobile phone market – December 26, 2007