Apple price cuts and online sales beat economic slowdown in India

In January this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned several reasons why iPhone sales were not picking up in the emerging markets including in India — customers holding on to their older iPhones a bit longer, weak macro-economic conditions, foreign exchange and battery exchange programmes.

As the year draws to an end, there has been a complete turnaround in Apple’s market share and presence in India, and all the above-mentioned reasons for poor growth have somehow magically disappeared.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is fast selling almost all products — iPhones, Apple Watch, Mac desktops and AirPods Pro — apart from a growing Apple TV+ community in India.

The growth is coming despite the fact that economic downturn has crippled several industries and people haven’t suddenly discovered more money to spend on premium smartphones and other devices.

The reason lies in a better understanding of a market that requires unique customer strategies and mind games, not seen in other, more evolved smartphone territories.

According to industry experts, fueled by attractive price drops on previous generation iPhone models especially iPhone XR, 7 and 8, Apple has been able to pen a new India growth story.