Apple Sets a Quarterly Record in India, Working ‘Really Hard’ to Solve Supply Constraints: CEO Tim Cook

Apple has set a new quarterly record in India for its September quarter, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook announced during an earnings call on Thursday. The 59-year-old executive did not reveal any exact revenues for the Indian market, though he considered the launch of Apple's online store in the country as a part of the latest success. The new record comes amid the drop in the iPhone sales globally by 20 percent. Cook also underlined supply constraints impacting the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac lineups.

Tim Cook said that there had been a “very strong reception” to the launch of Apple's online store in the country that went live last month. The company brought facilities including direct customer support and trade-in options to attract consumers. The online store also initially offered bank discounts and even hosted a special Diwali offer to gain popularity in the market where Amazon and Flipkart are largely dominating e-commerce operations.

Apple did not provide any specific numbers to highlight its record success in India. However, its net sales from the Asia Pacific region, excluding China, saw a growth of over 10 percent year-over-year.

According to a recent report by market analyst firm Canalys, Apple saw a double-digit growth in India in the third quarter this year, with the shipments of nearly 800,000 units.

“Apple is finally paying attention to India,” said Canalys Research Director Rushabh Doshi. “It has opened a direct online store, giving it several new angles in its go-to-market strategy, such as utilising device trade-ins to provide purchase incentives, or bundling AirPods with iPhones to make them more appealing.”

Earlier this week, research firm Counterpoint Research stated in a report that Apple led the over Rs. 30,000 market in India, thanks to the strong growth of the iPhone SE (2020) and iPhone 11. These two are the models that are helping Apple gain significant revenues from the country, according to market experts.

That said, Apple's latest record doesn't include the performance of the iPhone 12 series that just went on sale in India — alongside various global markets.

The latest results show that the iPhone sales dropped globally due to the delay in the launch of its new models. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, however, noted on the earnings call that demand for the iPhone remained “very strong” and customers demand for the existing product lineup “grew double digits” through mid-September.

Apple's total revenue grew to $64.7 billion (roughly Rs. 4,80,510 crores) in the September quarter, as per the quarterly results. That brought a seven percent dip in its profit to $12.7 billion (roughly Rs. 94,319 crores).

During the earnings call, Cook also talked about the supply constraints affecting the iPhone, iPad, Apple, and Mac product lines. He said that Apple was working “really, really hard to remedy” the ongoing issues.

“If you look at iPhone, we're constrained today,” he said while answering a question on the supply chain. “That's not a surprise at the front end of the ramp, and how long we'll be constrained is hard to predict.”

Apple has seen supply issues with the iPad and Mac lineups for quite some time this year supposedly due to heavy demand from people adopting remote learning and work from home culture due to the pandemic. It also upgraded its existing models with the new iPad and Mac machines that put additional weight on the supply chain, which also initially affected owing to COVID-19.

Are iPhone 12 mini, HomePod mini the Perfect Apple Devices for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.