Why Indians are biting the Apple?
Local manufacturing set up by Apple in India allowed the phone prices to be competitive vs rest of the world.
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By Sudhir Shukla
Apple revenues touched $6Bn in FY 2023 in just about 25 years of presence in India. And unlike its global mix (chart below) the India mix is 95 percent product dependent. iPhone is now the #1 Smartphone brand in India.
Just for context, that makes it one of the top 50 businesses by turnover and larger than organisations such as Asian Paints, ITC, Bajaj Auto and D Mart ! And all this achieved in pretty much a fraction of time spent by some of the other businesses and brands. It is a pretty remarkable achievement considering that it was a minor player in the smart phone market with most app developers and media planners deprioritising in favour of the android versions.
So what made Apple so successful so quickly?
1. Building the brand – This has to be the single largest reason. The manner in which Apple has stayed the course with consistent investments in brand has been the #1 reason for their success in India. Given that they have been criticised for the lack of product innovation in the last few years and the aggressive pricing that they have taken on phones, it would be safe to assume that most Apple device don’t upgrade/refurbish their devices before 3 to 4 years . And if the brand still grows 50 percent YoY, it has to be driven by new users coming into the Apple fold.
2. Availability of young first jobbers who are spending ahead of earning – There definitely is a rise in the number of sub-30 year old people who own an Apple device now. Considering that most Apple products cost more than the monthly salary of an average Indian corporate employee below 30 years of age, the financing option is in vogue. This is vastly different vs previous generations and signals a tipping point in the way consumers spend vs save now.
3. Local manufacturing set up by Apple in India allowed the phone prices to be competitive vs rest of the world. Indians would earlier scurry to contact. their families returning from US to Dubai to get them an Apple product given they used to be 10–20 percent cheaper abroad in the earlier days. India has to be one of the best places to buy Apple products now . Next inflection point will be in laptops as they set up MacBook production in India.
4. Rapid store expansion taking their footprint to 10,000+ stores has been a key enabler of this growth.
Sudhir Shukla is the chief operating officer at More Retail, food and grocery retail store chain.
