Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he is "very bullish on India" and that the country is a "hugely exciting market" for the company. During a call with investors after the company's first quarter results, Cook also said Apple is putting "a lot of emphasis" on the Indian market where it also set a quarterly revenue record. The first quarter results of the company showed an uncharacteristic year-on-year dip, down 5 per cent from last year to $117.2 billion. Cook attributed the poor numbers to three factors — "foreign exchange headwinds", Covid-19 related challenges, and the "challenging macroeconomic environment". He said Apple would have grown in most markets had it not been for the nearly 800 basis points impact on foreign exchange. How did Apple perform in India? Cook said Apple "feels very good" about how it performed in India after it registered a record quarterly revenue in the country and grew double digits year-on-year. "We actually did fairly well through Covid in India," Cook said. Apple also saw a record number of people switching from Android and other operating systems to iOS in India, the company said. Apple is currently the leader in India's premium smartphone market (above Rs 30,000) and also led the country's smartphone market in terms of shipment value in Q4 2022, according to the market research firm Counterpoint Research. "I'm even more bullish now on the other side of it. And that's the reason why we're investing there. We're bringing retail there and bringing the online store there and putting a significant amount of energy there. I'm very bullish on India," he added. What is Apple’s India strategy? Cook's comments come when Apple is understood to be looking at India as a potential device manufacturing destination in order to diversify its options from China, which is currently its biggest manufacturing base. The Cupertino tech giant has started manufacturing the iPhone 14 in India, and is reportedly exploring manufacturing other products such as its wireless headphones, the Airpods in the country. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple exported more than $2.5 billion worth of iPhones from India during April-December 2022, nearly double than the exports in the entire financial year 2021-22 (FY22), highlighting the rapid shift in its production to outside China. To further increase iPhone and other Apple devices' penetration in India, the company is also working on figuring out financing options and trade-ins to make their products more affordable in the country. "India is a hugely exciting market for us and is a major focus. We brought the online store there in 2020. We will soon bring Apple retail there. So we're putting a lot of emphasis on the market. There's been a lot done from financing options and trade-ins to make products more affordable and give people more options to buy. And so there's a lot going on there," Cook said. The government is also learnt to be working on making India a lucrative manufacturing destination. The Indian Express had earlier reported that the Centre is in talks with multiple state governments, urging them to draw up a strategy to expand capacities around the manufacture of smartphones to make India a lucrative investment choice over other competitors such as Vietnam.
