Apple’s heavy marketing blitz, combined with its continued emphasis on lower-end models, has continued to pay off in India, according to the company’s recent earnings call.
According to Luca Maestri, Vice-President of Finance and Corporate Controller, the iPhone continued to perform “exceptionally” well in many developing markets.
“In Greater China, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland and Turkey, iPhone sales grew by strong double-digits year-over-year, and in India and Vietnam sales more than doubled,” Mr. Maestri said, while briefing analysts on the company’s second quarter results.
The last one year has seen Apple double down on its India focus as well as start a spree of buy-back and discount schemes that have pushed volumes at the expense of margins. India has traditionally been ignored by Apple, which saw greater potential in China, with CEO Tim Cook saying that the cost of distribution in India “was too high and complex.”
According to Mr. Cook, the company continues to ship products like the iPhone 4S, which come at an affordable price point, because it is “proud to ship that product.” Apple has come under criticism from analysts for re-introducing models like the iPhone 4 line in India at around Rs. 22,000.
Emerging markets“I think that this quarter…hopefully this quarter demonstrates to you that we can do well in a number of geographies from emerging markets to develop markets,” he said.
“Some of the numbers that we've experienced just to quote some of the more historic prepaid market through the first-half of 2014; Brazil was up 61%, Russia 97%, and India 55%,” he added.
