Things Are Going From Bad To Worse For Apple In India (qz.com) 82
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Despite its increased focus on India, Apple is all set to see a slower year-on-year growth in iPhone sales in the country in 2018. "iPhone India sales were weak in the first half of 2018, and even if they show a big jump in the traditionally strong second half, Apple will still fall short of last year," Neil Shah, research director at market analytics firm Counterpoint Research, told Bloomberg. Apple has been struggling in India for some time now. In the year ended March 2017, its revenue growth fell to 17%, compared to 53% a year ago. This six-year-low growth was mainly due to a high base and a drop in the average selling price of each phone. Apple's biggest struggle in India has been its high price points. iPhones cost between Rs35,000 ($500) and Rs80,000 ($1,100) in India, compared to the average smartphone price of $157 in the country.
Amid all this, the company is seeing a massive churn in its India leadership. Last December, India head Sanjay Kaul quit after a six-year stint. The company has now reportedly lost three more of its top executives, Bloomberg reported on July 15: national sales and distribution chief, Rahul Jain; head of commercial channels Jayant Gupta, and head of telecom carrier sales, Manish Sharma. The company is also overhauling its India sales team, Bloomberg said, quoting unidentified sources.
Amid all this, the company is seeing a massive churn in its India leadership. Last December, India head Sanjay Kaul quit after a six-year stint. The company has now reportedly lost three more of its top executives, Bloomberg reported on July 15: national sales and distribution chief, Rahul Jain; head of commercial channels Jayant Gupta, and head of telecom carrier sales, Manish Sharma. The company is also overhauling its India sales team, Bloomberg said, quoting unidentified sources.
I bet if they make a low end phone (Score:4, Insightful)
They may have a bit better chance of penetrating a lower income market... Iphones are fairly expensive in a country like the US, completely stupid expensive for a country like India.
Re:I bet if they make a low end phone (Score:4, Insightful)
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you need to put those growth figures into perspective. The reason they could grow 53% in a year is they basically had less than 2% of the marketshare. Growth stopping at 2% in a market that is several times the size of the US is not good news for them. While the average per capita may be $600 their is a very large middle and upper class segment in india and right now they are choosing Android not apple.
Hmm... Not good news. This is really business point of view. If they can't make money comparable to their competitors, they are doing bad even though they may have plus-sided profits. Yep, It is not about the amount of profit dollars. It is all about market share percentage (which in turn will increase profit dollars even more). That's how business point of view works nowadays.
A bit off topic! (Score:2, Insightful)
Not only did he call a guy who rescued kids a "pedo"
Indeed, he proved that is vulnerable to human emotion and misdirected his frustrations onto someone else. I understand it but that doesn't mean it's ok. A price will be paid for his words.
he also turns out to be one of the biggest contributors to Republican PAC's
I think you a missing the bigger picture.
Forbes: [forbes.com]
There’s no doubt that Musk’s commitment to climate change is a life-long dedication: he has declared himself politically independent and announced comparative contributions to PACs aligned to the Democrats. His donation says more about the pernicious role of private money in the U.S. political system but it also shows the pragmatism of a man desperately striving for progress in a complex environment over someone who is a staunch ideologue.
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Biggest? He donated like $30k. That put him at #48 on the list. He donated a far larger amount to the DNC.
More hysterics. Are you capable of calm, rational discussion?
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Are you capable of calm, rational discussion?
You must be new here. This is where people go when looking for an argument.
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Re: A bit off topic! (Score:1)
And calling someone a pedophile is not "human emotion" and "frustration". It is disgusting behavior/quote> That depends entirely on why Musk blurted that out, which we'll likely never know... but rest assured he had a reason (bear in mind that extremely influential people are often extremely connected people... and in this day and age, there fewer and fewer secrets).
Re: A bit off topic! (Score:4, Insightful)
And calling someone a pedophile is not "human emotion" and "frustration". It is disgusting behavior/quote> That depends entirely on why Musk blurted that out, which we'll likely never know... but rest assured he had a reason (bear in mind that extremely influential people are often extremely connected people... and in this day and age, there fewer and fewer secrets).
No, just no... Unless Musk provides proof of what he said is true, it's slander and disgusting. Assuming that Musk knows more than he is saying is pure speculation and being an apologist for someone who is acting like a bully.
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Not only did he call a guy who rescued kids a "pedo"
..... A price will be paid for his words.
He goes down in a kids hole multiple times for multiple kids -- with witnesses, even. Of course he's a pedophile. (How on Earth did Musk come up with that?)
And a price? NP. Here, have a new car. There's more where that came from when it runs out of juice. Or: you've always wanted to shoot someone you didn't like into outer space? Soon, he can actually DO that.
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you've always wanted to shoot someone you didn't like into outer space? Soon, he can actually DO that.
Are we certain he hasn't already? I mean they claim it was a test dummy in that space suit, and did anyone check the trunk of the car?
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Awww, look its a butt hurt bigot who can’t handle his inferiority.sad.
Re: Simple solution (Score:2)
Indians made great advancements in arithmetic. But to claim that's the basis of mathematics is missing a whole lot. Greek geometry and abstract thinking and a focus on mathematical proof was just as important. In addition, the so-called Indian contribution to math is often conflated with Mesopotamian contribution to math, just as the Islamic contribution used to be greatly conflated with Indian because the West received Indian math through Muslims.
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Since then the USA put a car on the moon and sent another to Mars. I don't expect the Mars bound car to be operable when we get there but I've heard that the lunar rovers should be well preserved and just need a new battery to get moving again. In other words, what have they done lately?
Not everyone can afford them (Score:1)
Apple should know better then to think everyone in these countries makes enough to afford a iPhone. Or can even afford to replace one as often as Apple would like. But to me Apple has never bothered to entertain the lower price market with a phone other then the 5C and frankly there are better and cheaper Android alternatives.
Always growth and always growing faster (Score:1)
Why is it a miserable failure unless a company is not only growing but growing faster than before?
VP: "Hey boss, bad news, we sold more widgets in India this year than we sold in India last year."
CEO: "Jesus, why is everyone around me so incompetent?!"
What did they expect? (Score:2)
They're selling a luxury product, facing much more affordable alternatives, in a seriously poor country. And they still managed to move a few million units. Well duh, what's the complaint? The fact that it was not a complete flop should be seen as a victory.
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India has some of the poorest people. They also have a middle class that is larger than the entire US population.
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To most people:
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Your point is true, but the situation's actually even worse, as ultimately what does the Samsung do that a feature-comparable-but-much-cheaper Chinese phone won't do? Not much. Hence Samsung has "only" about 28% market share in India (while Apple don't even make the market share pie chart, getting bundled into "Others"), while Chinese brands dominate (https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/chinese-brands-dominate-indian-smartphone-market-51-share-q1-2017-report-62166) ... Apple's a ripoff, Samsung less so, b
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Don't look at the flagships only, Samsung offers some very modestly-priced models as well. Apple does not.
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That's a valid point, true.
The problem is tech support (Score:5, Funny)
When Indians have a problem with their iDevices, they get shunted to a Bay Area call center whose people speak in thick California accents and who insist on trying multiple approaches based on their training, rather than following comfortable scripts in the manner that local people are used to.
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This is the hardest whooooooosh I've seen in a long time.
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When Indians have a problem with their iDevices, they get shunted to a Bay Area call center whose people speak in thick California accents and who insist on trying multiple approaches based on their training, rather than following comfortable scripts in the manner that local people are used to.
Whoa dude! That is totally bogus!
Gee, what can go wrong. (Score:2)
In all likelihood your execs are quitting because once employed they come to a realisation of how detached from reality your sales targets are.
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Well, and the value isn't there.
Maybe if they released a new SE (Score:1)
That shit is old af.
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Why stop selling a product that sells, especially in markets like India, and has a headphone port?
Seems to me a lot of Slashdot commenters look for a headphone port on their phones. Seeing another phone with a headphone port be taken off the market is another signal other phone makers would follow and drop their products with a headphone port.
Also, when Apple announced the end of sale for the old style MacBooks with USB-A and MagSafe they got complaints. I guess this just shows again that someone will com
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I'm not buying a new phone until I can get one with THREE headphone ports!
Xiaomi (Score:1)
How does one compete with Xiaomi in smartphone market in india without doing what samsung did?
Samsung is set to build largest smartphone factory in the world to to india. I bet you it's not going to produce Galaxy S series. It will be producing low and mid range phones, some probably exclusive to India. That's not something easy to do for apple, because trump wants factories in US.
It's all about price there.
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That's not something easy to do for apple, because trump wants factories in US.
What Trump wants and what Trump gets will not always coincide. Also, it's not like Apple is incapable of creating more than one factory for their devices. Apple opened a factory in India to avoid import duties, so it's been done before.
It's all about price there.
Which is why Apple was willing to open a factory there. If Trump and his friends in DC want to see cheap Apple products in the USA then it would be to their benefit to fix the laws that discourage domestic rare earth metal mining. China has a near monopoly on vital rare e
its due to policies and marketing strategy (Score:1)
A lot of people who have used apple now hate it. And the reason has been bad policies and wicked pricing strategies, and totally lack of quality control in service centers. I have been sort of discussing this with people who switched
There was no option to replace batter or screen earlier. Its available now.
The price in India is very high, compared to what it should be for a 3rd world country.
People are realizing that high battery life is not due to better tech, but is due to low resolution display that ipho
Build brand at reasonable pace (Score:1)