NEW DELHI: The performance of the two stores opened by Apple in India has exceeded the initial expectations of the company, said its CEO Tim Cook on Friday.
Cook, in the company’s earnings call mentioned the company hit a June quarter revenue record in the country, and it grew double digits. “We also opened our first two retail stores during the quarter. And it’s of course its early going currently, but they’re currently beating our expectations in terms of how they’re doing. We continue to work on building out the channel and putting more investment in our direct-to-consumer offers as well,” said Cook.
In April 2023, the US-tech giant opened two stores in India in Mumbai and Delhi. The market share of Apple has been growing in India in the past few years. According to the latest report by CyberMedia Research, Apple has just a 5% market share in the smartphone market in Q2 2023, recording a significant Year-on-Year increase of 62% in its shipments. However, the company is also a top contributor in the Premium segment (Rs 25,000) with 25% share.
Calling India’s market as the second largest smartphone market in the world, Cook said Apple ought to be doing really well here. “And where I’m really pleased with our growth there, we’re still -- we still have a very, very modest and low share in the smartphone market. And so I think that it’s a huge opportunity for us. And we’re putting the -- all of our energies in making that occur,” added Cook. Apple is also expanding its manufacturing operations in India. Its exports in FY23 increased almost fourfold to exceed $5 billion.