“With slowing iPhone sales in China, Apple Inc. is having to take India more seriously, but investors hoping for a stock price fillip from CEO Tim Cook’s week-long Asia trip instead were given a taste of the daunting challenges that lie ahead,” Himank Sharma and Matthew Miller report for Reuters.
“While the numbers in India suggest huge potential – fewer than two in every 10 of the country’s 1.3 billion people have a smartphone – the world’s fastest growing major market operates differently to other markets where Apple has enjoyed stellar growth and high margins. Apple’s traditional model is to sell its phones at full price to local telecoms carriers, which then discount them to users in exchange for charging them for data as part of a multi-month contract. Not so in India,” Sharma and Miller report. “‘In India, carriers in general sell virtually no phones and it is out in retail – and retail is many, many different small shops,’ Cook told analysts recently. ‘Because smartphones there are low-end, primarily because of the network and the economics, the market potential has not been as great,’ added Cook, likening India to the Chinese market 7-10 years ago.”
“With per capita income of $1,570 as of 2014 and the average smartphone selling for less than $90, a third of the global average, India’s market growth is predominantly led by cheaper phones. High-end smartphones – costing from $300 – make up only 6 percent of the market, or just 6 million units, according to Morgan Stanley,” Sharma and Miller report. “Rebuffed by India’s government in its plan to import and sell used, refurbished iPhones, Apple has seen only slow growth in a market dominated by Samsung Electronics and Chinese brands.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, the people of India should realize that their government isn’t helping them by blocking affordable Apple Certified Refurbished iPhones, it’s forcing them to settle for inferior, insecure, derivative fragamndroid crap.
India should approve Apple’s plan to sell Apple Certified refurbished iPhones in India. Not only would they be affordable to more consumers in India, Apple’s refurb’ed iPhones are easily better than competitors’ new phones! Why keep the Indian people shackled to inferior iPhone knockoffs when they could have the real thing?
SEE ALSO:
Apple hits setback in push to open retail stores in India – May 24, 2016
Apple’s U-turn in India: From arrogance to servility – May 23, 2016
Apple finds potential new factory hub – in India – May 23, 2016
Apple’s Tim Cook samples Bollywood, cricket, in bid to woo India – May 21, 2016
India shows Apple CEO Cook the love it’s yet to give the pricey iPhone – May 20, 2016
Apple CEO Cook: ‘We are in India for the next thousand years’ – May 20, 2016
Watch Apple CEO Tim Cook at his first cricket game in India – May 19, 2016
Apple opens Maps development office in Hyderabad, India – May 19, 2016
Apple CEO Cook debuts in India – May 18, 2016
Apple to open first-of-its-kind iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in India – May 18, 2016
Tim Cook visits India: Apple to expand its Indian software development center, build local start-up accelerator program – May 17, 2016
Apple Retail Stores to open in India by end of next year – May 16, 2016
iPhone sales surge 56% in India as Apple eats into Samsung’s high-end share – May 8, 2016
Apple deprivileged as India bows to Washington D.C. consensus on mobile phone import tariffs – May 7, 2016
India rejects Apple’s plan to import and sell refurbished iPhones – May 3, 2016
Indian government panel paves way for wholly-owned Apple retail stores in India – April 28, 2016
My first observation is that this is a report for Reuters, who consistently knock Apple.
My other observation is that the author is simply saying that Apple hasn’t managed to get an immediate result. That doesn’t mean that Apple won’t end up with a great result. Apple is merely at the start the process and while there are many obstacles to be overcome, Apple is addressing them.