“In 2013, Apple wakened to the potential of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. India also happens to be the second-largest mobile market, with 800 million active users,” Saritha Rai reports for The New York Times.
“‘Apple sees that the market is at a takeoff point. Sales numbers could get serious within a year or two,’ said Anshul Gupta, a Mumbai-based principal analyst for mobile devices at the research firm Gartner. Apple’s shipments have doubled from 2012 and will surpass a million phones in 2013, Mr. Gupta said,” Rai reports. “It is also a market where 80 percent of smartphones sell in the range of $70 to $200, said Mr. Gupta, the Gartner analyst. High prices have kept Apple at the tail of the top 10 brands by sales, way behind No. 1 Samsung, which sells more than three-quarters of its phones for less than $400, and No. 2 Micromax of India, whose most expensive phone is $350. The cheapest iPhone costs about $525 in India.”
“To draw young buyers and increase its volume and market share, Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., offered a number of enticements besides the payment plan. Full front-page newspaper ads and TV commercials in recent months offered bonuses for trading in certain old phones and multiple deals, but with a single carrier so far. Wary of the inevitable branding-versus-pricing dilemma, Apple carefully couched these offers to not look like discounts,” Rai reports. “Making the phones cheaper, without appearing to be cheap, is enticing a new category of young, brand-conscious Indians…”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]