iPhone XR was India’s no. 1 ‘ultra premium’ smartphone in 2019

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iPhone XR was India’s no. 1 ‘ultra premium’ smartphone in 2019
The iPhone XR was a big hit in India last year. Relatively speaking.
Photo: Apple

Apple was reportedly the fastest growing premium smartphone brand in India last year — with a massive 41% growth year-over-year. The iPhone XR wound up being the country’s most popular “ultra premium” handset, claims Counterpoint Research. This was followed by Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Plus and OnePlus 7 Pro.

That’s great news for Apple. But there’s still a long way to go.

Counterpoint doesn’t provide figures for how many handsets were sold. Instead, it provides shipment volumes as an overall percentage of the marketplace. That’s still interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us quite as much.

Apple has struggled to crack the India market where the average smartphone sells for just a couple hundred bucks. The country’s average annual per-capita income is around $2,100.

As a result, in a population of more than 1.311 billion people, Apple holds just a few measly percentage points of the local smartphone market. That translates to just a couple million handsets per year. 41% growth is therefore great — but it’s still marginal. It’s largely thanks to Apple’s willingness to slash the cost of devices like the iPhone XR to get them into people’s hands.

Ultra premium phone market in India

There’s reason to be excited, though. The premium market (which is defined at being phones above $420) hit a record high in 2019. That segment of the market grew by 29% year-over-year. The top-selling premium brand was OnePlus, which captured a third of India’s premium segment. Apple, meanwhile, is in the “ultra premium” market, considered $634 and above.

Counterpoint notes that:

“This year Apple saw the fastest rollout of its new iPhones (11 series) in India with aggressive pricing and channel strategy. In fact the new series especially iPhone 11 was introduced at a lower price point than the last year’s iPhone XR launch. This has helped to gain share during the festive season and in its launch quarter in India.”

More promisingly, it goes on that, “We expect the strongest 2020 for Apple in India as it has expanded its production capacity in India.”

It remains to be seen whether India will ever be a big market for Apple. Nonetheless, Apple’s headed in the right direction in the country. And the opening of the country’s first flagship official Apple Store can only help.

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