Amid Apple’s record streak in India, iPhone sales in the country hit $10bn

Apple Inc. scaled a 11th straight quarterly revenue record in India in the October-December period, with analysts estimating that the iPhone’s gross revenue hit $10 billion in the country last year.

Apple has been on a strong growth phase in India, largely driven by escalating demand for the iPhone in India. The company’s smartphone lineup, which retails at over three times the average selling price of the Indian smartphone market, has been an outlier in terms of its volume growth—nearly tripling in annual sales by volume since 2021.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook, speaking at the company’s post-results earnings call with analysts, underlined India’s role both as a consumption market and an export hub for Apple. 

Although the iPhone maker does not break out India-specific numbers, Cook said he was “particularly keen on India, which set a December-quarter record during the quarter”. 

“We’re going to open four new stores there (in India). Also, the iPhone was the top-selling model in India for the quarter. And it’s the second-largest smartphone market in the world and the third largest for PCs and tablets, and so there’s a huge market. And we have very modest share in these markets, and so I think there’s lots of upside there,” Cook added.

On Wednesday, market researcher Counterpoint India said that for the December quarter, Apple had an 11% market share in India—a milestone for the company as it broke into the top five brands of India’s smartphone market.

A consensus of four analysts polled by Mint estimated that Apple shipped 12-12.5 million iPhones in India in 2024. With an average selling price of close to $800 ( ₹69,000) in India, Apple is likely to have hit close to $10 billion just from iPhone sales in 2024. 

The MacBook laptops and the iPad tablet computer, Apple’s other two key revenue generators in India, are expected to have generated a combined $2-3 billion more, last year.

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More room for growth in India

Per market analysis by researchers Counterpoint India and International Data Corporation (IDC), which Mint has seen, said iPhone sales in India grew from around 2.7 million units in 2020 to nearly 12.5 million units at the end of last year. 

In comparison, India’s overall smartphone market grew a meagre 7% in five years as consumers pulled back on discretionary smartphone upgrades.

Analysts said Apple still has ample headroom for growth in India.

Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India, said that although enterprise personal computer sales are “tricky” due to the market balance, Apple can find a key growth driver in this space.

“Apple has set-up a dedicated enterprise sales team in India in order to push its Mac lineup to companies. While third-party distributors have been there for long, Apple’s internal team can help with specialized technical support, including selling new generation devices in exchange of older ones—since Apple’s devices are 2-3x the price of the industry average,” Singh said.

He added that even though Apple is “unlikely” to generate the kind of scale that fellow PC brands HP, Dell and Lenovo have in India, there is “considerable headroom for growth due to the base effect of Apple in India”.

Tarun Pathak, director and partner at Counterpoint India, added that Apple is likely to continue seeing double-digit year-on-year growth in iPhone sales for “at least the next two or three years”.

“The latest iPhones have a strong streak of demand due to premium phones being affordable. Plus, the company is expected to launch a mid-range iPhone ‘SE’ in India with an updated design, which could further add to its market base,” Pathak said.

“Cook also said in Apple’s earnings that the company will launch an Indian dialect version of Apple Intelligence in the country soon. Once these factors play out, Apple’s growth in India for the next two years should remain in strong double-digit—at 20% or thereabouts,” he said.

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