Cook eyes bigger bite of India for Apple

CHENNAI: As it battled a third straight quarter of declining sales globally, India shone brightly for Apple, earning customary applause from CEO Tim Cook during the quarterly earnings. The company boss sought more from the market that promises a “huge opportunity” but still provides only “a very modest” share in overall sales.

Cook, who has been praising the company’s rapid growth in India in almost every quarterly outing with the media, said that Apple’s new stores in the country – that he inaugurated in April – had been “beating our expectations”, as the company further builds on its consumer offerings.

“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,” Cook said. Numbers tabulated by various research firms show Apple growing its share in the market at a phenomenal pace.
But Cook remains unimpressed and wants more, even as India set June quarter records and had a double-digit growth in revenues. “India is 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,” Cook said. A report by sales tracking agency Counterpoint Research said that Apple leads the ultra-premium (over Rs. 45,000-plus) smartphone segment in India with a 59% share as of June 2023. India has, for the first time, broken into Apple’s top-five markets during the quarter.