Apple Stock News
Apple has managed to penetrate the Indian market, with sales of iPhones increasing by 56% a year to date. Chief Executive Tim Cook is looking to target the country’s massive young population in a bit to even further eat into Samsung’s high-end shares.
Although Samsung and Intex still dominating the largest shares of the Indian market currently, Apple continues to grow, with sales up 56 percent year over year, according to the latest data from Canalys. As second fastest growing vendor in the top ten smartphone providers in the country, Apple has now started to challenge Samsung’s dominance in the premium market.
In terms of total market share for devices priced over $300 U.S., Apple has grown by 18% from 11 percent in the first quarter of 2015 to 29 percent at the start of 2016. While Samsung experienced a loss in which its share tumble from 66 percent to 41 percent over the same span.
“Apple is outperforming the overall market in India, and still has great growth potential,” said Canalys Mobility analyst Wilmer Ang.
Instead, Cook has turned his sights toward growing demand in India. This week, in an appearance on Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money,” Apple’s CEO noted that 50 percent of the population is aged 25 or younger, and those users have shown interest in buying the best products available.
In the quarterly earnings conference call earlier this year, Cook stated how he is and his team are “placing increasing emphasis” in growing markets outside the US.
“With only 42 percent smartphone penetration of the global handset market today, iPhone is still attracting millions of first-time smartphone buyers each quarter, especially from emerging markets. For example, in India our iPhone sales were up 56 percent from a year ago,” Cook said.
Cook expressed confidence in Apple’s ability to grow its market in India, the third largest smartphone market in the world. Cook said he sees India like “China was maybe seven to ten years ago” and that “there’s a really great opportunity there.