19% iPhone shipment growth in India amid fall in global sales

New Delhi: As Tim Cook announced that iPhones generated $26 billion in revenue in the company`s third quarter -- down 12 per cent from last year`s June quarter - - India witnessed a 19 per cent growth (year-on-year) in shipments riding on promotional offers and discounts from the Cupertino-based giant.

Apple iPhone shipments fell 11 per cent in the quarter globally but in India, it grew 19 per cent (YoY), according to Counterpoint Research.

"We are encouraged by the results we are seeing from the initiatives that we spoke about in January including strong customer response to our in-store trade-in and financing programmes,` said Cook during an earnings call with analysts late Tuesday.

In fact, said Cook, the retail and online stores returned to growth on a year-over-year basis in the month of June, adding that the iPhone performance in Q3 showed a significant improvement from 17 per cent (year-over-year) revenue decline in Q2.

"Our active installed base of iPhone reached a new all-time high and was up year-over-year in each of our top 20 markets, underscoring the quality of our products and the satisfaction and loyalty of iPhone customers around the world," the Apple CEO informed.

According to Counterpoint, despite the global decline, iPhone sales trends are improving.

"One of the interesting trend hidden in the growth of Apple in India was that last year, similar quarter growth was driven by older iPhone 6 series contributing 2/5th of the sales and this time, it was iPhone XR contributing almost half," Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, told IANS.

Promotional offers and aggressive marketing has helped Apple to drive revenues in India, he added.

This was the third consecutive quarter of a decline in Apple iPhone shipments.

To ramp up sales, Apple implemented price cuts for the iPhone XR in India and China markets.

"Amid the slowdown in China and likely launch of 5G capable iPhone in 2020, Apple will have to concentrate its efforts on emerging markets,` Counterpoint noted.

Apple has announced the acquisition of chip-maker Intel`s smartphone modem business for $1 billion.

"We see this as a great opportunity to work with some of the leading talents in this field, to grow our portfolio of wireless technology patents to over 17,000 and to expedite our development of future products," said Cook.

Apple Pay is now completing nearly one billion transactions per month more than twice the volume of a year ago.

"Apple Pay launched in 17 countries in the June quarter completing our coverage in the European Union and bringing us to a total of 47 markets currently. Apple Pay is now adding more new users than PayPal and monthly transaction volume is growing 4 times as fast,` informed Cook.

Thousands of Apple employees are now using Apple Card every day in a beta test, and Apple plans to begin the roll out of Apple Card in August.

"We had great results for Apple Watch, which set a new June quarter revenue record and is reaching millions of new users. Over 75 per cent of customers buying Apple Watch in the June quarter were buying their first Apple Watch," said Cook.

Apple also saw phenomenal demand for AirPods.

"When you tally up the last four quarters, our wearables business is now bigger than 60 per cent of the companies in the Fortune 500," said the company.

Cook said that the company had great performance from iPad, with revenue of over $5 billion, driven by iPad Pro and by strong customer response to the new iPad Mini and iPad Air.

"We were also very happy with double-digit revenue growth from Mac, fueled by a strong performance of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro," said the Apple CEO, adding that Mac pro production will remain in the US contrary to media reports that Apple is considering shifting Mac Pro production to China.