The iPhone 7 is the biggest test yet for Apple in India
India is already one of the company’s fastest growing markets with iPhone sales seeing a 51 per cent year-on-year increase
The iPhone 7’s debut could be a litmus test for Apple‘s future in India, where a series of challenges has left the company looking like it’s in “no hurry” compared to the competition, analysts told CNBC.
But the new iPhone’s Oct. 7 launch in India could improve the company’s fortunes, as it comes just weeks ahead of the nation’s gift-giving season. It could mean reduced prices on older models, analysts said, and make more iPhones accessible in one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone markets .
It all comes at a crucial time for the company, as it looks for a stabilising growth market amid a tenuous relationship with China, said Neil Shah, research director of devices and ecosystems at Counterpoint Research. In India, 16 per cent of the population had a smartphone at the end of 2015, compared to 44 per cent globally, according to Ericsson’s Mobility Report.
With an estimated 2 per cent in smartphone market share in the country, Apple has been no match so far for the complicated regulatory environment in India, where everything from opening a retail store to refurbishing old phones favours entrenched players and adds enormous relative cost to Apple’s sticker prices. The Indian iPhone 7 is expected to be up to US$250 more expensive than in the US, nearing US$900 — in a country where the average person made just US$1,581.60 last year, the World Bank estimates.
But to grow, Shah said Apple must strike in India before new smartphone users get too tethered to the Android ecosystem.
Despite its low starting point, India is already one of Apple’s fastest-growing markets — iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year on year In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings conference call. And though there are challenges, Apple is a highly desired brand there, experts say.