Apple?s hopes that it might prolong the life of its sacred cash cow the iPhone in India are proving false.
Apple made a huge push in India last year and the Tame Apple Press told us that with all this effort, India would do as well for Apple as China had done initially. However, at the time we said that was rubbish, as Apple was not modifying its sales pitch in any way to appeal to anyone but the small rich elite of India.
In fact Apple sold around 35 percent fewer iPhones in India in the second quarter of 2016 than it had during the same period last year.
Beancounters at Strategy Analytics said the numbers were low and the cheaper iPhone SE in the country earlier this year has not helped. The marketing research firm says Apple sold only 800,000 units in April, May and June. It sold 1.2 million units in the same months of 2015.
Strategy Analytics says India is proving to be Android?s playground and could capture the entire market. Google's rival mobile operating system accounted for 97 percent of the smartphone market in India during the second quarter of 2016, up from 90 percent during the same period last year.
Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics said Apple had the impossible job of flogging premium phones in a country where the vast majority of mobiles sold are priced under $150.It will need to reduce iPhone pricing to "cheaper levels" if it wants to take significant market share in the country, said.
Apple had thought that it could flog refurbished iPhones in India, as a way of getting its phones into the country at a cheap enough price. However the Indian government said "no" although it did finally allow it to build a few iStores.After all India is ok with people building temples to different religions.
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