Apple sees another record qtr in India; iPhone mkt share hits 6%

Apple Inc. on Friday reported the sixth straight record quarterly revenue from iPhone sales in India, where its smartphone market share is estimated to have touched 6%.

- Shouvik Das

Chief executive Tim Cook continued to sound bullish about the Indian market. "We see an extraordinary market-a lot of people moving into the middle class; distribution is getting better, lots of positives. We put two retail stores there; they're doing better than we anticipated. It's still early going, but they're off to a good start, and I couldn't be happier with how things are going at the moment," Cook said.

Since the March quarter of 2022, Cook has mentioned India in every earnings announcement. Since then, Apple has opened its retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi and has been making iPhones in India in line with global timelines and exporting them.

"We had an all-time revenue record in India. We grew very strong double-digits. It's an incredibly exciting market for us and a major focus of ours. We have a low share in a large market, so it would seem there's a lot of headroom there. The ASPS (average selling prices of smartphones), I haven't looked at them most recently, but I'm sure that they're lower than worldwide. But that doesn't bother us at all," he said.