The iPhone 15 and its many iterations accounted for more than half of Apple’s Q4 smartphone shipments, nearly 2.8 million units in India, Canalys he said in its quarterly report. The device has seen remarkable success in India as Apple has promoted the latest models during festive sales, which are held across online and offline channels in the country, as its large population celebrates Diwali in the last quarter of the year and offers discounts and offers. to attract customers.
While Diwali — the festival of lights — usually falls in October, it took place in November last year, according to the Hindu calendar, which gave Apple room to promote the iPhone 15 during the festival’s sales, he told TechCrunch Sanyam Chaurasia, senior analyst at Canalys.
Apple introduced the iPhone 15 series with some notable changes over its previous generations, including USB-C, a capsule-shaped Dynamic Island and a matte back finish on all models. These changes have attracted new and existing iPhone buyers in India, where Android dominates with a market share of over 95%..
Apart from design changes, easy financing, a better consumer environment and a growing retail presence have helped Apple make the iPhone 15 series more attractive to Indian customers than any of its previous generations, Chaurasia said.
Apple started selling the iPhone 15 series in India in its first batch of availability in September. For the first time, the initial batch of iPhones released was assembled locally in the country as the Cupertino company, similar to other smartphone makers, considers the South Asian nation as its global manufacturing hub and expanded its local manufacturing footprint.
Apple is still not a leading smartphone seller in the world’s second-largest smartphone market and captured a negligible share — 7% to be exact — in the fourth quarter, according to Canalys.
Chaurasia told TechCrunch that Apple’s shipments rose close to 32% quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter.
Samsung and Xiaomi emerged as the top two smartphone vendors in the Indian market in the fourth quarter, with a share of 21% and 17% respectively. Still, Vivo secured second place behind Samsung in full-year shipments, up 3% year-on-year to ship 26.1 million smartphone units in 2023, helping it grab an 18% share — just 1% less than the South Korean company, which posted a 1% drop in annual growth with shipments of 28.4 million units.
Image Credits: Canalys
The main reason why Apple is not yet a leading smartphone maker in India in terms of shipments is the high price of iPhone models in the country, which is home to a large number of price-sensitive buyers. Despite local assembly, the retail price of the iPhone in India is still significantly higher than in the US. For example, the iPhone 15, which starts at $799 in the US, sells for 79,900 Indian rupees ($961). However, the average selling price of a smartphone in the Indian market is around $250 — unlike $790 in the US
Despite this, Apple is becoming a household name in the Indian smartphone market and is rapidly developing its local presence. The company saw its highest quarterly iPhone shipments in the country in the third quarter, with over 2.5 million iPhone units shipped between July and September, per Counterpoint. The iPhone maker also opened two of its physical stores in India last year to expand its marketing efforts and attract more Indian consumers.
Overall, smartphone shipments in India got back on track after falling for five quarters, with a 20% year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter, with nearly 39 million units shipped, Canalys noted. However, the country saw a slight annual decline of 2%, with 148.6 million smartphone units shipped in 2023.
“In 2023, increasing investments in the central retail space proved to be beneficial not only for sellers, but also allowed the overall market to stabilize,” Chaurasia says in the report. “Canalys expects the Indian smartphone market to grow by mid-single digits in 2024, driven by affordable 5G and the pandemic replacement cycle. However, the biggest challenge for sellers this year will be managing the rising cost of materials.”
