Apple’s India Market Touches $1B With Record Breaking Growth, Overtakes China In Growth of iPhone Sales
For the first time in history, the growth of Apple products, especially iPhones, has been more in India compared with China. For the period between April to June, 2015, iPhones recorded a growth of 93% in India, which more than growth in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey and China.
In Greater China, which includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Apple witnessed 87% growth.
If we take into account the annual sales of Apple products, then India has become their billion dollar market now. Globally, Apple recorded a growth of 35% as 47.5 units were lapped up by customers globally.
However, compared with 13.2 million units (27% of overall iPhone sales) sold in China, only 0.5 million units were sold in India. But the growth trajectory witnessed in India has surprise even Apple, as they are now formulating some aggressive campaigns in India.
While presenting the Q3 2015 results, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said, “These numbers are unbelievable and they’re done in an environment where it’s not the best of conditions.”
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3 Reasons India Is More Important Market For Apple
As per insider reports, Apple is now planning to sell around 7 million units in India by the time 2018 ends, compared to a million units sold in entire 2014.
We tried to analyze three reasons, which makes India as a more important market for Apple, compared with China:
Smartphone Growth:
As of now, 116 million Internet enabled smartphones are in use in India, which will expand to 369 million by 2018. Less than 10% of Indians even own a smartphone, which makes the growth potential extraordinary in the coming days.
On the other hand, around a billion people in China already own a mobile phone, and 25-30% of them are using smartphone. Tech observers are pointing out that smartphone growth in China has almost reached a saturation point, as growth trajectory has fallen down since last few months. As per IDC, smartphone growth in China will crawl at 2.5%. Infact, during Q1 of 2015, China witnessed a negative growth rate of smartphone sales, for the first time in it’s history.
Luxury Market Growth:
If we talk about the growth of luxury market, considering that owning an iPhone is related with the social status in developing countries, then India is again ahead of China. As per Euromonitor’s analysis, luxury market in India is growing at an constant rate of 86% (for the period between 2013-18), compared with 74% in China.
Assocham and Yes Bank study estimated that $15 billion worth of luxury goods would be sold in India by 2015, as $8.5 billion was the market size in 2014.
Overall Economy:
By 2050, India will overtake Japan, UK and Germany to become world’s 3rd largest economy, behind US and China, with very less margin between #2 and #3 rank.
With improving economy, the middle class in India is projected to grow from 50 million to 200 million by 2020, as average monthly income of Indians is climbing 11% annually.
In January this year, Apple reintroduced iPhone 4 at Rs 15,000, which saw a surge in demand and helped them break a new record in India for the period April-June, 2015. In case Apple is able to decode the secret of creating a balance between price and quality; branding and popularity; then there India promises to be the best market in Asia.
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