Apple has set an all-time revenue record for iPhone sales in India during the June quarter.
“We set a June quarter records in India — driven by robust sales of iPhone,” Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said during the company’s earnings call.
Apple had launched its retail stories in India earlier his year. Cook said the performance of the new stores in India “exceeded expectations”.
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Luca Maestri, the chief financial officer at Apple, said the revenue growth in India was in double digits for iPhone.
To a question on the potential in India, Cook said: “You know we did hit a June quarter revenue record in India and we grew strong double digits. We also opened our first two retail stores during the quarter and, of course, it’s early going currently, but they are currently beating our expectations in terms of how they are doing. We continue to work on building out the channel and putting more investment in our direct-to-consumer offers as well. “
India has joined the ranks of Apple’s top five markets in Q2 2023, according to a research report by Counterpoint. This comes even as economic worries persist, causing smartphone shipments to India to continue to decline, falling by 3 per cent year on year. But premium smartphones continue to lead growth, capturing 17 per cent of the market share in India.
“If you look at it, it’s the second largest smartphone market in the world and we ought to be doing really well there and we are very pleased with our growth there. We still have a very, very modest and low share in this smartphone market, so I think it’s a huge opportunity for us. And we are putting in all of our energies to make that occur,” Cook said.
India’s rise comes even Apple Inc. posted its third straight quarter of declining sales globally and predicted a similar performance in the current period, hurt by an industrywide slump that has sapped demand for phones, computers and tablets. After the company reported a revenue decline of 1.4 per cent in the fiscal third quarter, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on a conference call that Apple’s performance would be similar this period. An additional drop would mark the longest streak of declines in two decades.