India skipped much of a mention in iPhone and iPad sales for Apple for the April-June period, with the top management making a rare omission of mentioning the country’s performance in these two main product lines during the analyst call after announcing the quarterly results on Wednesday.
The only mention the performance in India received was the record sales of Mac computers during this period.
Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the company saw “great momentum” in many emerging markets for Mac sales, with “growth well into double digits and we established new June quarter records for Mac sales in India, Turkey, Chile and Central and Eastern Europe.”
The company had ran a promotion for Mac computers last quarter in India under the ‘back to school’ initiative offering heavy discount to students.
Apple’s management in earlier earnings call used to give more updates on the Indian operations, the potential of the market and business for Apple, and how it was able to achieve record revenue or sales of its main product, the iPhone.
Industry watchers said the absence of India in much of what Apple CEO Tim Cook and the CFO said was no surprise since the company’s sales had declined in the last quarter due to restructuring of the business which includes correction of the channel strategy, reducing discount-led sales and rebuilding the premium image of brand Apple.
The company is moving from five distributors to two in India, will focus more on selling at the MRP with limited period of discounting, is moving out of smaller retailers who have failed to provide consumer experience and is entering into new trade agreements with all partners including online sellers and marketplaces to ensure its sales terms and conditions are maintained.
Apple India, under a new expat country head Michel Coulomb, undertook these changes in a complete reversal of strategy unlike his predecessor.
This correction, along with no seasonal price drop of the iPhone X and 8 due to increase in import duties, and launch of newer premium Android models by rivals OnePlus and Samsung, led to a record drop of iPhone market share in India last quarter, according to market tracker Counterpoint Research.
As per the Hong Kong-based researcher, OnePlus reached over 40% share in the Rs 30,000-plus premium smartphone segment in the April-June quarter in India compared to 9% in the same period last year. Samsung was pushed to the second spot with 35% share and Apple has for the first time reached the third slot in India with a record low of less than 14%.
Counterpoint said Apple too moved down from the top five smartphone makers by revenue in India, with OnePlus taking the spot. Ahead of OnePlus are Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo in that order.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com