Apple CEO Tim Cook said India is emerging as an important market for the iPhone maker, as the Indian market is currently at a “tipping point”, with a lot of people coming into the middle class.
During the company’s earnings conference call on Thursday, Cook said: “India is an incredibly exciting market and a major focus for Apple.
The Apple CEO also said the company performed well in India, setting a quarterly record this year, and posting very strong double digit growth year over year.
Cook’s comments followed his recent visit to India to launch two retail outlets, one in Mumbai and another in Delhi.
During his India trip, Cook also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, and junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, affirming the tech giant’s investment commitments to the world’s second largest smartphone market.
Apple is betting on India to become a key manufacturing hub in order to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China, thanks in part to incentives provided by the government through its production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones.
It’s also keen to tap the immense labour pool in the South Asia country.
The tech giant clocked iPhone exports of about $5 billion-$5.5 billion from India in FY23, accounting for nearly half of the country’s mobile phone exports, according to estimates from industry sources.
Apple is estimated to be leading India’s premium smartphone market – priced above Rs 30,000 ($367) – in Q1 2023 with a 36 percent market share, according to the market research firm Counterpoint Research.
The company’s overall market share in India’s smartphone market, however, is still modest, at an estimated 6 percent.
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