Apple has revealed the company’s main achievements in India and other global markets in the December quarter of 2017.
The US-based device manufacturing company achieved double digit revenue growth in all its geographic segments, including the U.S., Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mainland China, Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and India.
Apple sold 5.1 million (–5 percent) Mac units, registering 2 percent increase in average sales per week. Apple noticed strong demand for Mac in emerging markets and achieved 13 percent growth in Latin America, India, Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe. The install base of Macs globally rose in double-digits to a new record.
Apple sold 13.2 million (+1 percent) iPad with average iPad sales per week up 8 percent over last year’s December quarter. iPad sales grew strong double-digits in many emerging markets, including Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and India, as well as developed markets, including Japan, Australia and Korea.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said this is the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X has been the top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November.
“Our active installed base of devices reached 1.3 billion in January. That’s an increase of 30 percent in just two years,” Tim Cook said.
IDC said Apple experienced a downturn in the holiday quarter as iPhone shipments dropped 1.3 percent to 77.3 million units. Strategy around iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X enabled Apple to overtake rival Samsung in Q4 2017.
The demand for the higher priced iPhone X was not strong in both emerging and developed markets. Apple finished second for the full year in 2017 shipping 215.8 million units, up 0.2 percent from the 215.4 million units shipped in 2016.
Research firm Strategy Analytics suggests that Apple will need to launch cheaper iPhones and start to push down, not up, the pricing curve if it wants to expand shipment volumes in the future.
“Despite iPhone X demand and an iPhone average selling price approaching an incredible US$800, we note global iPhone volumes have actually declined on an annual basis for 5 of the past 8 quarters,” Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics said.
Though Samsung faced pressure from Chinese rivals in some major markets including China and India, it is the largest smartphone brand on a global basis, shipping 317.5 million units in 2017.
Baburajan K
