Despite the start of local manufacturing, Apple is still having trouble growing in India. That’s because a new report released by the Economic Times points out that iPhone sales fell 42%in the first quarter of this year. As a result, only 220,000 units were marketed throughout the country.
The numbers for April were better and the Cupertino giant had an incredible improvement with the sale of 200,000 units in just one month. However, the launch of the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro has made the company back in the background, as the competitor’s handsets have a friendlier price.
In general terms, Counterpoint Research expects Apple to ship about 1.5 or 1.6 million handsets to the Indian market this year. Although optimistic, if the forecast materializes, it would represent a drop of 10% to 17% compared to 2018.
To make matters worse, when we look at the 2017 numbers, sales results in 2019 may be even more disappointing. That’s because 3.2 million iPhones were sold in 2017 and this year’s numbers could represent an incredible 53% drop.
So many analysts point out that Apple needs to react to not completely lose the Indian public. Neil Shah, director of research at Counterpoint, warns of the company’s troubling situation:
Apple had a disappointing phase in 2018 and the outlook for 2019 looks weaker, with shipments falling even more than last year, with the exception of April, thanks to the price correction that month.
For now, we still do not know what strategy Apple will adopt in the Indian market. Even so, sources point out that the company under the command of Tim Cook plans to increase its local production to escape the country’s heavy import taxes.
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In one example, leveraging the nationalist campaign of local government, Apple recently started the production and promotion of the “amazing iPhone 6S “. Now, analysts point out that the iPhone XR will be the next device to enter the list of “produced in India”.