Behold as Apple’s mighty CEO shifts attention towards us mere mortals! Well, it wasn’t this dramatic but he did acknowledge the not so unexpected slowdown of business in India. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
For the first time in six years, Tim Cook acknowledged the flat growth rate of Apple India in a financial quarter. The slowdown stood out even more because globally Apple reported one of its fastest growth rates for straight 22 quarters.
“These are markets where currencies have weakened recently,” he said. “In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices. Those markets are not growing the way we would like to see. To give you perspective, our business in India in Q4 was flat. Obviously, we would like to see that be a huge growth.”
This comment was in response to a question on how Apple India is stacking against the other Apple markets around the world and if Apple is at a disadvantage in the country.
While Cook blamed it all on the weak rupee and higher import duties, we all know those whopping price hikes had a part to play too!
But that didn’t deter the CEO from being optimistic and if we may, slightly unrealistic. He continued that the Indian government will, at some point, agree to allow the tech giant to set up stores across the country. All while lauding the country’s bold reforms, saying he was a “big believer” and “very bullish” on India.
Optimistic much? There’s more!
Cook, despite the challenges, including currency weakness, said that he was very optimistic about Apple’s future in the Indian tech market.
“There’s a huge number of people that will move into the middle class. The government has really focused on reform in a major way and made some very bold moves, and I applaud them for doing that, and sort of can’t wait for the future there.”
Not to be a buzzkill, but here’s a reality check! For starters, there was a 6% decrease in the number of iPads sold, from 10.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Secondly, iPhone sales have dropped in India thanks to Apple’s brilliant move of increasing prices. And lastly, with the recent cost bump in the latest Mac lineup, those numbers are only going to go down!
Feel otherwise? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.
