Apple CEO Tim Cook Optimistic About India as the Company Achieves All-Time Revenue Record

Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, says he is never been more optimistic after the company's successful year in India. During the investor call, Cook discussed his views on the Indian market and the company's quarterly results. Although Apple's overall revenue for the quarter was marginally lower than the previous one, Cook expressed optimism about the Indian market.

During the earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned that India had achieved an all-time high in revenue, experiencing rdouble-digit growth. He expressed the company's strong commitment to this dynamic market, emphasizing its substantial growth potential due to the increasing number of people entering the middle class.

In India, Apple has had a very exciting year. The Cupertino giant opened its first Apple Retail Store in the nation in Mumbai in April of this year. A second location opened in Delhi. Tim Cook travelled to India for the grand opening of both stores, which saw a large crowd of Apple enthusiasts waiting outside the doors for hours before they opened, following a six-year hiatus.

He mentioned that it is still early going, but the two retail stores they launched are doing better than they expected and that there are a lot of positives about how things are going right now. Cook recently visited India in April and had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In contrast to the market's flat year-over-year growth, a recent Counterpoint report confirmed that Apple saw the highest-ever smartphone shipments in India during the June–September quarter of 2023. Apple saw 34% YoY growth while going through a period of rapid expansion in India. With over 2.5 million units shipped, Q3 2023 was also the best quarter for Apple's domestic shipments, according to Shubham Singh, Research Analyst at Counterpoint. 

After nearly a year of decline, the Indian smartphone market is finally beginning to show signs of recovery thanks to a gradual uptick during the holiday season. It's interesting to note that the ultra-premiumization trend (>Ra 45,000, ~$540) is intensifying with every quarter that goes by. The market's adoption of multiple incentive programmes, the availability of simple financing options, and consumers' growing demands for the newest technology all contributed to the segment's 44% YoY growth in the June–September quarter of 2023.

Additionally, since its September global release, the recently released iPhone 15 Pro Max has been in high demand in the nation. Prior to its worldwide release, Apple has also, for the first time, started producing the newest iPhone models—the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro—in India.

Apple's regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for the year 2022–2023 state that the company's India business touched a record milestone of Rs 50,000-crore revenue, even though the company hasn't released India-specific numbers for this quarter.

Also Read: The US FTC alleges that Amazon secretly increased prices with an algorithm, resulting in a $1 billion profit