India is an 'incredibly exciting market, major focus for Apple': CEO Tim Cook

Driven majorly by iPhones, Apple registered an all-time record revenue with a strong double-digit growth in India.

Apple on Thursday announced financial results for its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter for the month ending September 2023.

It posted revenue of $89.5 billion, down 1 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.46, up 13 percent year over year.

This is the fourth straight quarter of decline for Apple, but India has emerged as one of the bright spots for the company.

Driven majorly by iPhones, Apple registered an all-time record revenue with healthy double-digit growth in India.

"We had an all-time revenue record in India, we grew very strong double digits. It’s an incredibly exciting market for us and a major focus of ours. We have a low share in a large market and so it would seem that there’s a lot of headroom there... We see an extraordinary market—a lot of people moving into the middle class... Lots of positives, we put two retail stores there and they are doing better than we anticipated—it’s still early going but they are off to a good start and I couldn’t be happier with how things are going at the moment," said Tim Cook, CEO.

The latest iPhone 15 series has received an overwhelming response in India and it was noticeable during the launch week in late September. The delivery of iPhone 15 Pro series models was delayed till mid-November. Since then, Apple has managed to balance the demand and supply ratio, and is now, ready to deliver in one week's time.

Apple commands a big market share in the premium smartphone segment (Rs 30,000 and above) in terms of value in India.

Also, with the rise in the production of iPhones in India, Apple has not only managed to cater to the domestic but also steadily increased the unit shipments to international markets.

It should be noted that the smartphone shipments remained flat in Q3 (July-September, 2023) in the subcontinent, but Apple registered the highest-ever quarterly shipments.

As per the latest counterpoint report, Apple shipped a whopping 2.5 million iPhone units in just three months, with more than 34 per cent jump over the previous year, same period. Two Apple Stores-- BKC (Mumbai) and Saket (Delhi), are reportedly registering around Rs 22-25 crore revenue per month each.

As per latest reports, Apple's FY2023 revenue reached Rs 49,321.8 crore, compared to Rs 33,381 crore in the previous year, same period.

"iPhone revenue was $43.8 billion, up 3% Year-over-Year and a new September quarter record. We had strong performance in several markets, including an all-time record in India and September quarter records in Canada, Latin-America, the Middle-East, and South Asia. Our iPhone active installed base grew to a new all-time high in fiscal 2023 was another record year for switches," said Luca Maestri, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, of Apple.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Currently, Apple has around 4.5 per cent market share in terms of shipments, but is poised to continue with accelerated double-digit growth in India in the coming quarters.

In a related development, Apple is expected to further increase the production capacity from the current 14-percent to 25 per cent in 2024, said Ming Chi-Kuo, Apple analyst said on his blog post on LinkedIn.

And, if things go as planned, Apple is reportedly planning to start iPhone 17 series production first in India and later in other regions.

It will be the first time ever, that Apple will skip China as its primary supplier market of a new product. It should be noted that this year, the iPhone 15 production started in India along with China. From day one, every iPhone 15 series units sold in India were all locally assembled.

If Ming Chi-Kuo is to be believed, the made-in-India iPhone 17 (2025) will be available for purchase globally on the launch day.

Once Tata completes the acquisition of Wistron's iPhone plant in Kolar (Karnataka), Apple is expected to form a more stronger alliance on par with current suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron, to produce iPhones locally and for exports to global markets.

Besides iPhones, Apple has registered all-time record revenue from its services such as iCloud, Apple Arcade, Music and Apple One Bundle, and other related services. However, there was a decline in shipments of Mac devices and iPads, and was the primary reason for the dip in overall revenues for the quarter ending in September.

But, with the launch of new MacBook Pros and iMac, things may change for Apple in the next quarter.

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