Apple to become the top premium smartphone brand in India, suggests Q4 2019 data

Apple has reportedly witnessed a 41 percent year-on-year (YoY) in Q4 of 2019, which made it one of the fastest-growing brands in India.

The factors behind the significant growth are said to include a combination of aggressive pricing and promotional offers during the festive season, reported The Economic Times (ET), citing a Counterpoint report. In addition to that, revamped channel strategy and local production of the iPhone XR under the Make in India initiative drove sales at an annual level, where the Cupertino-based tech giant saw a 6 percent YoY growth. To compare, Apple witnessed a 43 percent YoY decline in 2018.

The recent growth results do hint that Apple is slowly approaching towards becoming the largest premium smartphone brand in India. The company launched its latest iPhones, the iPhone 11 series in India within a month after its original launch in the US.

Another report by International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests double-digit growth for Apple in the fourth quarter. According to the report, Apple had a market share of 50.1 percent in the July-September quarter of 2019, whereas Samsung and OnePlus captured 28.8 percent and 10.3 percent in the premium segment.

“The deals struck with e-commerce players during festive quarter further helped in garnering more volumes for Apple on key models like iPhone7,8/Plus series and the iPhone XR,” Upasana Joshi, associate research manager, client devices at IDC told ET.