If Apple decides to go aggressive with its assembly plans in India, the milestone would be achieved sooner through the year as that would give Apple entry into mid premium Smartphone market through SE and other earlier versions of iPhone.
According to a report by Cybermedia research, Apple is all set to be the 11th brand in Smartphones in India having more than 10 million users using various models (including variants) of the Smartphones available of the brand.
The report said as of end 2017, there were 8.9 million iPhone users in India and with an addition of estimated 3 million, it would surpass the 10 million mark even after discounting the switch within the brand, which is approximately 35 percent as per latest Mobilytiks estimations.
However, if Apple decides to go aggressive with its assembly plans in India, the milestone would be achieved sooner through the year as that would give Apple entry into mid premium Smartphone market through SE and other earlier versions of iPhone, the report added.
Though, there are already 10 brands having surpassed this milestone and established brand like Samsung has even surpassed 100 million marks having more than 120 million Smartphone users as of 2017 end.
At the same time, emerging brands like Xiaomi also had over 28 million Smartphone users by the end of the period. However, in a price sensitive market like India where 56 percent of the Smartphones sold are still sub Rs 10,000, achieving a 10 million active users milestone is a remarkable accomplishment deserving compliments. At the same time, the love shown by Indians for the brand is no different to any other emerged economy like the US and Europe.
Apple shall achieve this feat irrespective of its ‘Make in India’ strategy with the average level of 3 million shipments it does in a year.
Currently, Apple only assembles iPhone SE in India.
To recall, a report by Counterpoint this year in January said Indian handset market, the premium smartphone segment was the second fastest growing segment (+20 percent YoY) in CY 2017 driven by the strong performance of OnePlus and Apple.
Apple is still the leader in the premium segment, capturing 47 percent share during Q4 2017 and 38 percent during CY 2017, driven by strong shipments of iPhone X and iPhone 7.
However, demand for iPhone 8 remains soft and, as a result, the overall Apple shipments in the premium segment declined 31 percent YoY.
The decline is also partly due to last year’s strong quarter when sales of the iPhones spiked owing to demonetization and the high volume of cash transactions.
