Apple registers a stellar Oct-Dec quarter in India

On the back of the launch of iPhone 13, Apple registered a record quarter revenue of $123.9 billion, an 11 per cent increase year-on-year in October-December quarter of 2021. The Cupertino giant registered an all-time record in India as well. During the earnings call early this morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We set all time records for both developed and emerging markets and saw revenue growth across all of our product categories except for iPad, which we said would be supply constrained.” 

According to the CMR, Apple shipped 2.2 million iPhones in the October-December quarter alone in India, and a total of 5.4 million units in Calendar Year 2021. While the quarter-on-quarter growth Apple registered in India has been reported as 34 per cent, the year-on-year growth has been much higher at 48 per cent.

“Despite supply chain challenges, Apple has been able to manage its supply chains through the course of the pandemic. In India, Apple has been diversifying its supplier base, working with multiple ODMs to produce its flagship iPhone models,” says Prabhu Ram, Head – Industry Intelligence Group at CMR.

Apple saw strong demand across the iPhone 13 family across the world. Cook told analysts during the earnings call that the new iPhone 13 family was the top selling models in various markets, including the top five in the US and Australia, the top four in urban China, two of the top three in the UK, three of the top four in France and Germany, and four of the top six in Japan. The response to the iPhone 13 was great even in India too. The top selling iPhone model in India was the iPhone 12 with 40 per cent market share of the total iPhone market, followed by iPhone 11 with 26 per cent share and iPhone SE (2020) with 14 per cent, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Max were on the fourth and fifth position managing 13 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, as per the numbers shared by CMR. 

“Apple has had an outstanding year in the India smartphone market, shipping >5 million iPhones, and is on track to notch a historic >4 per cent market share. Through the course of the year, Apple continued to build on its gains on the back of increased share of domestic manufacturing, aggressive retail initiatives, and robust consumer demand through the all-important festive season period, including Deepavali. 

We believe Apple is on track for a record year ahead, especially with the potential launch of iPhone SE 2022 edition in H1 2022, and its broadest iPhone portfolio across price tiers,” adds Ram.

Apple eyes India as a key strategic market and has been ramping up its operations in the country. For the first time with the iPhone 13 series, India made it to the first wave for the launch of new iPhones. Until this time, India would only get those new models a few after the leading global markets. Apple has been increasing manufacturing in India through its top production partners Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron. Apple has also commenced trial production of the iPhone 13 in the country. 

CMR estimates Apple’s potential market (iPhones) share in CY 2021 to be about 4.4 per cent.

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