After a tepid 2018, Apple seems to have finally made its comeback in India during the last quarter of 2019. According to Counterpoint Research report, the Cupertino giant was one of the fastest-growing brands in India during Q4 2019. With the aforementioned results, the company now represents a threat to the premium segment leader, OnePlus. Although, the latter still has the customer’s preferences and may increase its efforts in 2020.
According to Counterpoint, Apple’s iPhone XR and iPhone 11 have sold really well in India. The company reportedly registered an impressive 41% YoY growth in Q4 2019. It grabbed a 2% market share of the highly competitive Indian market. In a quick comparison, Apple’s shipments had experienced a huge decline of nearly 43% in India in 2018. It was the darkest of the years in Apple’s recent story.
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The company revised its marketing and pricing strategies and apparently the results are satisfactory. For instance, the company performed a major price cut on its iPhone XR model. Then, it turned into the best selling iPhone in Q2 and Q3 of 2019 in India. Then, the company released the new iPhone 11 series in September, making it the fastest rollout of a new iPhone lineup in India. It seems that Apple finally understood the importance of the Indian market in the current smartphone scene. Thanks to the no-cost EMI and HDFC festive cashback offers on the iPhone 11, the company got a big slice of the Indian cake at the end of 2019.
The local manufacturing was one of the biggest changes made by Apple in 2019. Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur factory in Chennais is assembling the iPhone XR. Wistron’s Bengaluru facility is assembling the iPhone 7. Thanks to the local manufacture, the company is now able to offer aggressive price cuts as well as to up their sales during the festive period. For instance, the iPhone 11 was launched at a cheaper price point than the 2018’s iPhone XR. This definitely helped customers to instantly select the newer smartphone.
Apple iPhone 9 may become Apple’s first 2020 hit in India
With the rumors of an affordable iPhone 9 dropping in March this year, we’re sure that Apple will throw it directly in the Indian market. This way the company will try to catch more customers from the Indian stronghold.
