Apple sells its products at a premium price. In some markets, Apple has a huge smartphone market share. For example, in the United States it has a 61 percent market share, and in Australia, 54 percent. However, in India, Apple’s market share is only 2.7 percent, with some sources even claiming it to be around 1.5 percent. In contrast, Android’s market share in the world’s second-most populous country is above 96 percent.
Now before we start saying that Android has cheap phones at all price points, we have to know that India also has a vast population of the wealthy, high-tier middle class, and ever-increasing purchasing power of the general middle class.
It is not that iPhones are not popular on mouths. It is not that people have not heard of Apple or iPhone! Many people wish to have an iPhone as it is trendy and seen as a luxury and status device among youth plus people in general. But it is the drawbacks of Apple, iPhone, and iOS (many of which are region-specific) that hinder the growth of Apple in India. Lets us look at some primary reasons.
Why Apple is not successful in the Indian market?
1. No partnership with mobile wallets or BHIM UPI
In India, mobile payments (mobile wallets from companies like Paytm, PhonePe, Mobikwik, Freecharge) are a huge hit.) But Apple does not yet allow payments from these methods on the App Store. In China, it accepts WeChat Pay.
Update: From 2021, Apple started supporting Rupay cards (bigger than Visa and Mastercard in India) as a payment method in Apple ID.
Google, on the other hand, has partnered with almost all mobile carriers and all mobile wallets. You can use these to pay on Play Store.
2. No official Apple Store or service center
Apple has no official Apple Store in India. It only has authorized resellers. Many times experience here isn’t premium that a customer pays for the Apple products. Further, the existence of authorized Apple resellers in small towns is a rarity.
In 2016, one Apple-authorized service center in New Delhi (Connaught Place) asked ₹1500 for an under warranty service. Another Apple-authorized service center in Anand Vihar (12 km from New Delhi) did the same for free.
So no official store leads to irregularity. Since there are only Apple resellers or third-party sellers, many of them do not have some niche Apple products like Apple Watch and AirPods for people to try in-store before buying.
3. Poor Siri
Siri pales in comparison to Google Assistant and Alexa in India. Apple’s voice assistant does not support Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, etc. However, it has English (India) as a language option — which better understands Indian English accents. But this too is not a perfect or even satisfactory experience because it does not understand even slightly complicated place or person names. Siri also lacks features like movie timings, nearby shows, restaurants, proper direction, and other similar features.
Next, if we Google something in a browser or Google Assistant, Google shows many different options.
For example, if you ask Siri ‘Google Domino’s Pizza,’ it just shows a list of websites on its flat Siri screen (earlier it used to show in Safari browser, which was better.) On the other hand, if we search the same on Google Assistant (or browser), Google automatically shows the nearest Domino’s, the address, phone numbers, distance, and other useful information in one command. It is extremely helpful.
Earlier, Siri used to show results in Safari whenever it was asked to ‘Google’ something. This was helpful. Apple removed this feature, and now Siri shows Google’s result on its screen, which is lackluster.”
4. Inability to download content from the internet easily, (iOS restrictions and lack of robust file manager)
Many people in India, especially students, download movies, TV shows, music from various internet sources (it is illegal) and share with friends. This is easily done on Android devices. There are small computer shops where you pay ₹20 (US$ 0.29) and can get five full HD movies on your memory card or android device. The same isn’t comfortable with iPhones.
5. Limited dual SIM card capabilities
The maximum number of users in Indian has a minimum of two SIM cards. It is easy to have a high-end Samsung device with two SIM cards than keep two phones.
Update: Latest iPhones have dual SIM capabilities, but they are limited to only two mobile carriers-Reliance Jio and Airtel. Vi (Vodafone + Idea) requires a postpaid connection for e-SIM!
Note: These iPhones (unlike iPhones sold in China) do not take in two physical SIM cards. (mobile network companies provide scannable code, which is then imprinted on the inbuilt e-SIM as the second SIM.)
6. Premium price not just for products but also after-sale services
iPhones are not manufactured locally in India (except some models like iPhone SE, 6s, 11, etc.). As a result, huge tariffs are to be paid. This directly increases the price of Apple products.
iPhone X (64 GB) in USA costs $999. In India, it costs ₹90000, that is $1288.
On the other hand, companies like Xiaomi have local manufacturing and assembly in India. This saves them from substantial tariff costs, and thus they can keep the prices low and yet provide respectable specs. Samsung, on the other hand, has everything in India.
Recently, in addition to all other manufacturing plants, Samsung has opened the WORLD’S LARGEST MOBILE MANUFACTURING PLANT in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It also plans to manufacture Galaxy Note 9 here.
Apart from product price, the cost of after-sale services or repair services like screen replacement is too high.
Screen Replacement on iPhone X is equal to the price of One Plus 6 in India. Screen replacement for my iPhone 6s plus is Rs. 21000, which is the cost of a new iPhone 6 in India.
7. Fierce Android competitors
Android companies like Samsung, One Plus, Oppo, Vivo, Mi are too fierce. They run online mega sales, flash sales, discounts, promotions, free screen replacement, ads by cricketers, Bollywood actors, YouTube Creators, etc. Marketing is huge!
Also, the commission paid to offline mobile sellers by companies like Vivo and Oppo is a lot more than other companies. Thus mobile sellers push to sell phones from these brands to people who do not know much or care greatly about specs and performance. (Remember, Apple has no official Apple Store!)
8. Competitors’ service centers everywhere!
There are Samsung service centers almost everywhere. Most other companies also have service centers scattered everywhere. Apple has limited service centers.
In my home state (having a population of 100 million and an area 78 times that of New York City), there is just one Apple Service Centre; in the state’s capital. The state capital is 7 hours (one way) from my place of residence. Now imagine submitting my iPhone or Mac one day and then going to pick it some days later after the repair!
This is the story for many Indian states! (However, there are plenty of service centers in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.)
9. iPhones are not impressive on paper!
iPhones and iOS are siblings. Both together work well. But in India, people are spec checkers. Android phones crush iPhones in this department. People will tend to buy a phone with powerful specs on paper like 4000 mAh battery, 6 GB RAM, 24 MP Front Camera, etc. On paper, iPhones lack this. So this results in some people choosing ‘great-on-paper’ Android devices over iPhones.
Let us conclude!
Nevertheless, Apple is investing hugely in India. CEO Tim Cook said that India is the next big thing for Apple (as other big markets like North America and Europe have reached smartphone saturation level.)
Apple has partnered with homegrown consumer electronics chain Croma to open Apple Stores in India (or at least have its signature wooden tables displaying its products in existing Croma Stores.)
Apple has kept prices of many of its paid apps and subscriptions less in India (compared to the United States.) For example, Regular Apple Music subscription in India costs $1.72 per month. For students, it is just $0.86 per month.” The same pricing strategy is followed for many other third-party apps.
On a comparison scale, Apple is far behind. Even if we talk ONLY about premium smartphone space, Apple has been dethroned. Now the king of the premium segment is One Plus (some sources say Samsung). Keep in mind that any phone above ₹35000 falls under the premium segment in India.
My opinion
Apple is the trendsetter with vast reserves of cash and potential. Once Apple gets seriously serious about the Indian market; tweaks its existing products and services to suit Indian consumers, it would hardly take Apple 2-3 years to be a dominating player in the Indian market.
There is a strong intuition that Apple is already planning for India and the Indian sub-continent. The launch of its official Apple online store in India is a fantastic step in the right direction.
It is just a matter of time. Let us wait like we waited a year for the first iPhone to launch in India when other countries were getting the second version of the iPhone.
Fact: The first iPhone never launched in India. iPhone 3G was the first iPhone to be launched in India in August 2008. It was launched with Vodafone and Airtel.
Notes:
- For some points, by ‘Apple’ it might mean ‘iPhone’ and vice versa.
- Originally I published this article in skeleton form as a comment on a related YouTube Video.
- Initially, this post was written and published in mid-2018. Recently, a few lines were revised.
- For some additional Apple issues in India, read my review and experience using AirPods.
- People reading this may contribute more points or contradict me. We can have a constructive debate. Thank You.
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Apple isn’t successful in India because India suffers from a poor economy. Its GDP per capita is ranked on the 138th out of 195 countries. It’s full of uneducated citizens, just take a look at most of their Politicians. The wealthy Indians suffers from a big ego, which never helps the poor.
Apple is also selling its phones at ridiculously expensive prices, especially for Indians.
1. Now India is the world’s 6th largest economy (soon to be 5th). But yes you are correct that GDP per capita is low. This is because of huge population. BTW India is ranked 121st and not 138th. But this isn’t the only reason for low iPhone Sales.
2. You are naive to use the words ‘full of uneducated citizens’. Do you even introspect how childish you sound!
Literacy rate in India is 74%. Now 74% of India’s 1.3 billion population is 96,20,00,000.
Now, let us consider USA to be 100% literate (which it is not) but still. Population of USA is 32,00,00,000. Even then, the total number of educated person in India is almost thrice that of USA.
Population of Australia is around 2,50,00,000. Let us assume everyone is educated. Still India has around 40 times more educated people. Now, just for one second, let us remove Indian people with primary education from the list of literates. Still India has many times more educated people than Australia.
India has the highest number of people getting college education.
3. Politicians in India (and world) are of all kinds. Educated and uneducated (but experienced). BTW, irrelevant but still I am mentioning; most politicians irrespective of their education in India use iPhones. Recently one state government ordered 100+ iPhones for all its officials.
4. No, wealthy Indians do not suffer from big ego. People like Azim Premji have donated billions for uplifting conditions of poor in India.
India is a country where, people raise millions within hours for any cause, be it helping flood victims or some army personnel’s family.
5. Your last point is correct. But this is because of taxes on phones not assembled / manufactured in India. iPhone SE and 6s which are assembled in India are very cheap (with same prices as US and other countries.)