This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
It’s been just over a year since Apple opened its first flagship stores in India – first in Mumbai, and then a smaller store in Delhi. After years of watching Android dominate the world’s most populous country, 2023 was the start of a real push by Apple to sell the iPhone to India’s growing middle class. And it was accompanied by an effort to manufacture more iPhones in India – something that has achieved mixed success. Last year, I wrote that Apple’s bet on India was much more important than splashy product launches like the Vision Pro.
This week, we have our first indication that the bet is paying off. Apple’s total annual sales in India jumped by 33% to nearly $8 billion, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. Apple normally doesn’t disclose country-by-country sales figures, so it gives us a rare look at the company’s retail business on the subcontinent.
To be clear, it’s still early days: India represents just 2% of Apple’s overall sales, and most estimates have Android controlling over 80% of the market. But those two figures show why India is so important to Apple: it’s a major market with plenty of room for growth.
There were real reasons to think it wouldn’t have worked, though. While last year marked the opening of official Apple stores, iPhones had been widely available in India for years, including in informal secondhand markets. The iPhone is seen as a luxury item in much of India, and for good reason: An iPhone 15 currently costs nearly three times the country’s median monthly wage. For years, the conventional wisdom on how to crack India was for Apple to launch a new, lower-cost model – something Apple has long resisted. There was no obvious move or launch from Apple that would explain a jump in sales in India … other than the opening of the two flagship Apple stores.
But in hindsight, underestimating the impact of those official stores may have been my mistake. Writing from New York or California, it’s easy to forget what it means when the first official Apple store opens in a country. The stores have put up record launch numbers, according to local press, but even those figures would account for just around $25 million in annual sales – a tiny portion of the countrywide sum. But the halo effect of the stores has been significant, and Indian e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Paytm have bombarded customers with flash sales, dropping the effective price without taking any luster off the Apple brand. And while most of the sales aren’t going through the flagship stores, they provide a focal point for hype-heavy product launches, which drum up the kind of excitement that partner shops can capitalize on later.
The power to generate this kind of excitement – what critics would call their “reality distortion field” – has always been Apple’s greatest strength. But it’s been tested recently: tepid sales of the Vision Pro suggest that Apple expanding into new markets isn’t a guarantee of success. And as it stretches into areas like headsets and video streaming, it’s tempting to wonder if Apple has overextended itself and moved away from its core strength. In light of that, the company’s push into India can be seen as a test of whether it still has the power to win people over to the iPhone. At this stage, even the sceptics have to admit that Apple is passing with flying colors.
Russell Brandom is the US tech editor at Rest of World. He is based in New York City.
This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
