More than a decade after they were first introduced, iPhones are still in a high demand.
iPhone-maker Apple has just announced its financial report for 2021’s third quarter. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple has reported an incredible growth in India in the June quarter. Thanks to a nearly 50 per cent year-over-year (YoY) jump in iPhone sales, the company announced a massive earning beat for the three months – April, May and June. It posted total quarterly revenue increased 36 per cent to $81.4 billion — a record for the June quarter and nearly $8 billion above analyst expectations.
During the company’s quarterly earnings calls, the Apple CEO referred to India. According to Tim Cook, India is one of the emerging markets where it saw strong growth. He said in a statement, “Apple is reporting a very strong quarter with double digit revenue growth across our product and services categories and in every geographic segment. We set a new June quarter revenue record of $81.4 billion, up 36% from last year, and the vast majority of markets we tracked grew double digits, with especially strong growth in emerging markets, including India, Latin America and Vietnam”.
The CEO also pointed out that Indian customers have been ahead of several other countries in switching to iPhones and in upgrading their already existing iPhone handsets. Cook said, “We had an incredible quarter for the emerging markets in Q3. We set June quarter records in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, UAE, Poland, Czech Republic, India, obviously in China as I talked about before, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia… Those results are for the entire line of products that we have.”
Typically, the June quarter is the slowest time of the year for Apple and leading up to the report that the company would face tough YoY comparisons for hardware sales because the ongoing pandemic was driving high demand for iPads and Macs this time last year, some analysts had worried. But, Apple’s results suggest that it’s still going strong even as the coronavirus conditions have improved in many parts of the world.
According to several analysts, the huge growth in the Apple’s revenue is the result of shift in the culture where people are studying and working from home.
In the earnings call, Cook said, “the new product helped push Mac revenue to a June quarter record.” He added “Performance was consistently strong across the world and we grew very strong double digits in each geographic segment setting June quarter records in most markets we track.”
Tim Cook suggested that some of this growth could have been because of the affordable iPhone SE, which got a new version last year. “Keep in mind, we still do have SE in the line. We launched it a year ago, but it’s still in the line today and is sort of our entry price point. And so I’m pleased with how all of them are doing and I think we need sort of that range of price points to accommodate the types of people that we want to accommodate. And so we’ve got something for the entry buyer who really wants to get into an iPhone and then something for the pro buyer who wants the very best iPhone that they can buy.”
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple has been achieving record sales in India in all product categories for three consecutive quarters. In the period of January-March, it was the number one premium brand with a 48 per cent share of the smartphone market price above Rs 30,000 and 207 YoY growth. In the coming months, Apple is expected to launch a bunch of new products, including iPhone 13 series, new AirPods, Apple Watch and new MacBooks powered by M1 chipset.