Apple Just Had Its Best Quarter in India, the World's Second Largest Smartphone Market

An anonymous reader shares a report: On Wednesday, research firm Canalys reported that Apple shipped close to 925,000 iPhone units in India in Q4 2019, up over 200% annually, in what is the company's most impressive quarter in the world's second largest smartphone market to date. Madhumita Chaudhary, an analyst with the research firm, said the company's move to partner with a local bank to make iPhone 11 more affordable helped it hit "a home-run with its pricing strategy" in the country. The iPhone 11, currently available for sale in the country at 64,900 Indian rupees ($909), is available for as low as $550 for some HDFC bank customers. More than 80% of the population in India earns less than $200 a month and smartphones are sold without any bundling with carrier. If that wasn't a tough sell for Apple already, India's local laws have made iPhones even more expensive. Most iPhone models are especially expensive in India as Apple passes on the local import taxes that it pays to the government to its customers in the country. New Delhi maintains strict import duties, but it offers a range of tax benefits to companies that manufacture or assemble their electronic products locally in the nation. The report also claims that Apple plans to start selling iPhones in India online starting Q3 of this year.

The value of a smart phone.

[jellomizer]

My conservative parents were lecturing me on the fact that Poor People have iPhones implying that they are wasting tax payer money on them.
So I broke down the cost, and the fact it can be used as your primary Computer/Internet/Phone/Television/Radio Service with access to cheaper plans, and buying older model of phones we are probably saving the tax payers thousands of dollars of previously necessary technology because it comes down to one piece of a slightly expensive hardware. Vs. a combination of techno

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[junglee_iitk]

While all that is true, poor people are not buying iPhone in India as iPhone is actually a luxury item tbh. It is not superior to most of the offerings from Chinese makers who are selling models in the range of 100-150 USD, especially in India where iPhone is not marketed in any local languages.

The fact is that iPhone is not being bought by poor people, it is being bought by people who are renting out their property to these poor people for exorbitant amounts of money and poor people are renting those place

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[invictusvoyd]

untouchables are well off now . thanks to endless reservations

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[WindBourne]

Mod parent up. He is spot on.

too bad most those iphones

[FudRucker]

will be used to scam americans by telemarketing schemes

India needs to require that these be made in India

[WindBourne]

Seriously, the ones coming from China should be heavily tariffed and from elsewhere with a lighter tariff. The last thing India needs is to have China spying on them and turning over their state secrets to Pakistan.

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[alvinrod]

What difference does it make or what good does it do India whether or not they're assembled in India or China if you're only looking at it from the perspective of security. The same parts and chips are used regardless of where the assembly occurs and India isn't capable of producing the chips or some of the other components that go into an iPhone. Hell, not even China produces everything itself. The CPU (and probably the cellular baseband) is made in Taiwan and only shipped to China to be assembled.

India

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[WindBourne]

I know that India is poor. That is in major part why I am suggesting that India should have major tariffs against CHinese made phones (and other goods). Even now, China is trying to do to India, what they have done to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, and Peru.

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[unixisc]

India generally views China as an adversary, particularly given that the 2 countries have territorial disputes at 2 points of their border - Ladakh and Arunachal. Which is why India was one of the first countries to crack down on ZTE and Huawei.

Besides, the recent events around China - first the tariff wars w/ the US, and now the coronavirus - has driven a lot of the slave labor manufacturing from China to other countries like Vietnam, Thailand and... India

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[NoMoreACs]

What difference does it make or what good does it do India whether or not they're assembled in India or China if you're only looking at it from the perspective of security. The same parts and chips are used regardless of where the assembly occurs and India isn't capable of producing the chips or some of the other components that go into an iPhone. Hell, not even China produces everything itself. The CPU (and probably the cellular baseband) is made in Taiwan and only shipped to China to be assembled.

India only puts tariffs on these devices because they want the assembly jobs to be in India. It might not seem like much to you, but there are plenty of people there who are incredibly poor and would benefit from having a job like that available to them.

Here is a breakdown for the country-of-origin for the components in an iPhone 4:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Ma... [arcgis.com]

Sorry, I can't find a more recent example; but although the individual suppliers have in some cases changed (e.g., Apple has steadily reduced its reliance on Samsung-produced components overall), the idea is the same.

High volume - low margin

[OrangeTide]

Being the biggest isn't the same as most profitable.