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Apple Continues to Struggle in India as iPhone Sales Drop 35 Percent in 2016

danakin said:
I agree with your statement. The year on year drop, however, has to be troubling. The price conscious nature of that market is a constant that the sales trendline has dipped below. It's too big a market to ignore yet, at the moment, the only solution appears to be a pricing adjustment.
As more of the planet moves away from carrier subsidized devices, it will be interesting to see how it affects iPhone sales and whether there will be an inevitable acceptance that margins may need to be revisited. The shareholders will be watching this closely.
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What I don't understand is where Strategy analytics is getting their numbers. On the latest earnings call, Tim said sales continued to grow in India and that last quarter, sales grew by 51% so unless I missed something I'm chalking this one up as yet another bogus report by a research company trying to get its name out there to sell reports.

As for subsidies going away, there was some research done which showed that monthly payments may actually benefit Apple because it's easier for people to justify spending an extra $5 to $10 per month to get the phone they really want instead of paying an extra $100 or $200 up front with subsidies.

It's the tried and true "4 easy payments of $29.99" that you see so often on HSN and infomercials.
 
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Cuban Missles said:
Create a cheaper phone that gets folks into the ecosystem for example. Figure out what manufacturing can me moved to india and invest there. This will warm the government and the people to Apple.
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Apparently, Apple realized this or is trying to comply with India’s import requirements. It was reported recently that Apple is investing in an app development arm there and has historically recruited the country’s programmers to quality-check Apple’s OS code.
 
Thunderhawks said:
...or have clean water, etc.etc.

Unfortunately Apple doesn't have a device to stop them from making more people.
That by the way is a worldwide problem.

The planet is about as full as it can be and people live longer than before.
Not everybody will be able to have a job = money.

Only country to ever attack that issue was China.

Overpopulation, now there is an area to innovate in.
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The problem is not "overpopulation" it is the distribution of wealth and resources; e.g.

Americans waste about 141 trillion calories worth of food every day. That adds up to about $165 billion per year – 4 times the amount of food Africa imports each year.

source: https://www.one.org/us/2014/11/12/14-surprising-stats-about-global-food-consumption/
 
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To those who say that indians are poor, while you are correct, you only need 10% of the India population to meet the US average household income of $50k/year to create the potential of 100m customer base.

I mean, just the top 1% would equal to 10m potential customers.
 
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samcraig said:
If iPhone are too expensive in India - why push them there?
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While I agree with you that a lot of people are poor in India, India has also one of the fastest growing economies in the world and by that also lot's of well paid workers. Indian people, like the chinese want the latest and greatest and it's not only a matter of price. You'll see lot's of very expensive Android phones doing very well there.

It's value for money and Apple isn't the status symbol of wealth anymore. It's lost its cool like they're losing it in Europe.
 
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MacRumors said:
Strategy Analytics said that Android's domination of the Indian smartphone market "looks unbeatable right now, due to its deep portfolio of hardware partners, extensive distribution channels, and a wide range of low-cost apps like Gmail."
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If low cost apps are truly giving Android an edge then why doesn't Apple leverage iCloud better and offer a usable amount of included storage. 5GB is equally a joke and an insult for the cost of the phone. Apple has a decent set of included productivity apps but rendered worthless b/c of the iCloud policy. Of course Apple updating Pages to be more like Word wouldn't hurt either, and revamping mail too.
 
Apple products are too expensive for India. In fact, they are quite expensive overall due to Apple's super high margins. They would still be making a good profit selling iPhones, etc. 30-40% cheaper. Remember, Apple's ethos was making "the best products", not the most expensive ones or having mega profits.
 
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Apple’s foray into India is ballsy. India per se isn’t a poor country; however, its wealth is disproportionately owned by a very small fraction of its people. Oh, wait… I might be thinking of the U.S. All kidding aside, the working class is so huge there that wages are uncompetitive. A PhD there earns what a retail worker here would. No wonder India’s educated want to work abroad. Then they can buy their humble relatives iPhones as gifts.

I wonder. If the working classes here continue to see their wages lose pace with the cost of living, will people migrate to cheaper alternatives?
 
rocknrollme said:
That's the problem when selling a thousand dollar phone in a country where most people struggle to eat everyday.
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neosupreeth said:
All these comments about people not having money to eat, so can't buy iPhone is bull..... Whats your market guys? I would estimate Apple's market to be around 60M in India amongst a population of 500-650M mobile phone users. You just don't know how people are ready to spend. Spending power for the age group between 22-40 is super high at the moment. These 60-80M have deep pockets to give the INR 65,000- INR 80,000. (I can buy a good motorcycle for that price). So, that is the market. The rest is the decently priced and lower priced market. So selling only a few million iPhones is because of other reasons.

Talking about phones:

1. Great variety of handsets/phones available. (Range - INR 15,000 to 35,0000) - which can do what an iphone does (build quality, features etc.)
2. Too many players - excellent competition, network to get phones. Starting from local stores to online sales.
3. Most apple apps DONT work in India.
4. Apart from the "oooh - apple", common man doesn't care. He wants functionality, value for money.
5. Android apps are far more flexible, more customizable and can just do a lot of nerdy things. College kids, youngsters - the new gen who earn more and are ready to live on credit! - the previous generation thought different, save first, rest use for spending.
6. Android apps - more options I would say.
7. As for Quality, I have never bought a product which didn't work. And if it didn't after a few years, there are enough places to get it repaired or it not that expensive to buy a new one.
8. iPhone customer service in India is not like how it is here in the US... its convoluted. A non-iPhone user probably has better ways to get his phone fixed if it doesn't work than a guy who spent INR 70K.

Tim is targeting some of these by opning up a developer center, retail stores etc. You can't boss around, you got to play by the rules of the land. Do what you need to, and then enter the market. An Indian buyer always loves aggressively priced products. Its not being cheap, its looking for value.

All other reasons stating economic conditions is just nonsense - that is not your market.
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Great points, that is why I love to visit the old country.
 
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Defthand said:
Apparently, Apple realized this or is trying to comply with India’s import requirements. It was reported recently that Apple is investing in an app development arm there and has historically recruited the country’s programmers to quality-check Apple’s OS code.
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I think the app development center is a good thing, but manufacturing is what will drive tons of jobs in india and that has a bigger impact I think.
 
And they will lose more of the market in September with the lame iphone 7. I hate to say, but Samsung is moving forward and releasing amazing products. Apple needs to innovate. This new iPhone is going to be a flop. Apple doesn't have one more full year to release the upgraded iphone. People.will.lose intrest and look for other, better choices.
 
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nope7308 said:
Good.
Apple needs to be knocked down a peg or two. Resting on their laurels a little too much, if you ask me (and even if you don't).
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Some of the posts are too off the mark for the topic - like this one.

What do the innovation aspects, next better iPhone, OLED screen, etc., have to do with the price of iPhone 6s or SE in India, a poor nation looking to spend money on food, clothing and housing?
 
rocknrollme said:
That's the problem when selling a thousand dollar phone in a country where most people struggle to eat everyday.
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You'll be surprised. In emerging markets, expensive phones like iPhones are actually selling. In these markets, people cannot afford big ticket items like houses and cars to show off like people in the US. So what they spent their fortunes on are gadgets, as status symbol.
Sure, the sales numbers might be low, but Apple has its own target segments.
 
MacRumors said:
Apple Stores aren't as ubiquitous in India as they are in other parts of the world thanks to the country's rules on foreign direct investments, which required 30 percent of goods sold by a foreign company to be manufactured or produced within India.
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Technically, there aren't any Apple Stores in India, right? Only a few authorized retailers, I believe.
 
On the most recent earnings call Tim Cook said:

"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51% year on year."
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This report is BS.
 
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Rogifan said:
On the most recent earnings call Tim Cook said:



This report is BS.
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I don't think it is... It's possible that Apple sold 51% more iPhones in India and still losing market share.
Apple sold 51% more iPhones in India in last quarter financial reports compared to the amount of iPhones it sold before. However if Android sees an even bigger increase in shipment, overall marketshare from Apple will fall.
 
Sure, Apple could make a phone for half the price, and sell twice as many.

But until they have to, they won't. Period.

Apple knows how this works. Premium product, premium experience, premium price, premium profits.
 
usersince86 said:
Sure, Apple could make a phone for half the price, and sell twice as many.

But until they have to, they won't. Period.

Apple knows how this works. Premium product, premium experience, premium price, premium profits.
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I agree with you on most except premium product and premium experience. That is something from the past.
 
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