Is Apple Losing The War To Android In India?

Since the launch of iPhone 6, almost everybody wondered whether such a small minority of this mobile device will even remain relevant in the further years to come. Well, undoubtedly, Apple is holding on to a sizable chunk of the present market. But, at the same time, Android is also growing at a very faster pace, and is eating the rest of the market.

What Are The Possible Threats?

The quality of the Androids is getting better and better day by day, and this fact seems to be strong enough to pose a long-term challenge to Apple. In a recent forecast of IDC for 2018, it was observed that Androids will actually lose market share, and will sink to 77.6 per cent of the market. However, that occurs after Androids adds an approximate of 404 million phones, while at the same time, Apple adds only 63 million. It is also a notable fact that Smartphones tend to grow in the East, and not the west, which is also a problem for Apple, because Androids dominates China and Asia. One more threat that I would like to add on, is the pricing factor. Android is driving the market into such a price, that no one can even guess about it. It is noted that the average Android price is heading towards $200, while that of iPhone heads towards $600. Well, for far, the audience has answered that they are not willing to pay three times as much for the iPhones. Of course, brand and quality are important, and usually Apple wins over here, but now this case does not seems to be happening.

What Is The Present Situation Of Apple In India?

iPhones, just had their worst ever quarter, growing at the slowest pace, since the time it was launched in 2007. Significantly, it is a fact that Apple has only an approximate of 1 per cent share of the booming Smartphone market. In this situation, a sales target of a million iPhones seems to be within a breaching distance. According to a data, 106 million Smartphones were sold in India in the year 2015, and 300 million more of these are expected to be sold in the next two years. In India, Smartphone boom has just started a couple of years ago. There is a potential to convert an Indian Smartphone buyer to an iPhone buyer, which is the only reason that I find that Smartphones contributes to a sale of 40 percent in India, as compared to that of 90 per cent in China. India is a challenging market for Apple for sure, and is mainly because of India’s weaker spending power. This is the reason because of which One Plus and Samsung have outdone Apple’s sale numbers, by selling Android phones at a very low price, as compared to iPhones.

How Important Indian Market Is For Apple?

Apple itself is forecasting the first ever fall in revenue, for over a decade. Also, this quarter is the same in which Apple had their best ever quarter in India. It is very evident from the above stated fact that India is very much vital for Apple, a market that it could no longer ignore. Several reasons seem to be there for compelling Apple to keep its focus on India. One of the reasons that I would suggest is that India is soon to be the world’s second largest Smartphone market, where the sales of iPhones raised from 200K units per quarter a few quarters ago, to an estimated 800K units in one of the most recent quarter. To gist up, I would say that India is a huge, luring market that just cannot be disregarded. It is a high potential market, in terms of volume and is also filled with massive scale and opportunity lying ahead. India will continue to be tough going for Apple, because of presence of several rival phone makers, be it domestic, Chinese, or global.

A Huge Disappointment Of iPhone 7:

When iPhone 7 was introduced, Tim Cook told that it is one of the best phones that they have been able to make till now. And the biggest stories of the day were that the iPhones will no longer support headphone jacks. Perhaps, Tim Cook wanted us to believe that the presentation of a phone that looks exactly the same as that of phones already in use, minus a 3.5 millimeter hole was worth of spectacular fanfare. It seemed that they wanted to convince themselves when they said about the best phone myth. After such a huge competition from the Android phones, this iPhone 7 mistake can prove to be fatal for Apple.

Apple remains one of the most valuable companies in the world, but the status given to it, has begun to seem challenged. The sales of the Apple in the first quarter of 2016 had been lower as compared to the same period an year before, something that have never happened for the last thirteen years. The same thing also happened in July, which suggests that Apple is not at all that cool and brandy, as it supposed to be.