It’s hardly a secret that Apple products are extremely sought after, even here in India where they fall under the category of ‘luxury goods’. And like we have repeatedly told you, the greatest barrier to market for Apple India has been … yup, the cost. That’s what happened to the latest iPhones. Apple India launched the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in India in October in the price bracket of Rs 62,000 – Rs 92,000. This meant we had to shell out about Rs 14,000 – 16,000 more than our brethren living in the US, Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong. What happened was predictable.
The high prices discouraged buyers and sales fell short of expectation. “The initial momentum was not that strong, so Apple went in for a change and offered discounts on the new phones,” said Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research. “But the overall demand for Apple iPhone still remains strong, thanks to the strong aspirational value attached to the brand,” reports Economic Times.
“Our iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales were very good primarily due to the buyback offer, which started a week before Diwali,” said the chief executive of a leading retail chain in south India. AppleSutra was not far behind in reporting the various discounts. Offers varied from discount of 34,000 rupees to 50% buyback.
However, we are forced to wonder if it is too little, too late? In October, Microsoft did something it’s never done before: it generated more revenue selling its Surface line of PC/tablet hybrids to online consumers than Apple did selling iPads, according to data from 1010data.
It is a tough market out there. Especially with top makers going all out to capture the world’s largest untapped smartphone market. Sales of Apple’s iPhone in India are so small that the company ranks 18 among smartphone vendors, with a meagre 0.9 percent of shipments, observes The Verge.
The pie-chart shows just how far behind Apple is: In line with the growing importance of India, Apple has expanded its number of distributors this year from two to five. The most in-demand Apple product this quarter has been the 16 GB iPhone 6S. Apple’s strategy seems to be to simply rope in as many customers as possible into their ecosystem through the iPhone. And then transfer that consumer-base to other Apple products.
That strategy is reflecting in other places as well. The reduced Apple Music subscription prices in India (INR 120 for individuals and INR 180 for family); new iCloud prices; the possibility of manufacturing plants being set-up here and even the iconic Apple Store coming to India – these are all small, but welcome, changes.
And these small changes are adding up, but are they enough? For our sake and theirs, we hope that Apple India ’s price policy sees a definitive change in India. We are, after all, their most profitable bet.
