Tim Cook no more bullish as Apple goes through its lowest phase in India

Aware of Apples poor run in the Indian premium smartphone market this year its CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday avoided mentioning India and the companys bullish approach towards the country probably for the first time at the companys Q3 earnings callThe only mention India got was from Apples Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri that too for Mac and not iPhones during the call with analysts and investors after the company reported record fiscal 2018 third quarter result AprilJune period with 533 billion in revenueWe were very happy to see doubledigit yearoveryear growth in our active installed base of Macs to a new alltime high with nearly 60 per cent of purchases during the quarter coming from customers who are new to MacEven with a difficult launch comparison we saw great momentum in many emerging markets with growth well into double digits and we established new June quarter records for Mac sales in India Turkey Chile and Central and Eastern Europe Maestri told the analystsDuring the Q2 earnings call Cook had said Apple is bullish on India and plans to launch several initiatives including retail in the countryCook said Apple was putting a lot of energy in India and working with the telecom carriers in the marketThis time he missed mentioning India saying that iPhone grew faster than the global smartphone market gaining share in many markets including the US Greater China Canada Germany Australia Russia Mexico and the Middle East and AfricaiPhone had a very strong quarter Revenue was up 20 per cent yearoveryear and our active installed base grew by doubledigits driven by switchers first time smartphone buyers and our existing customers whose loyalty we greatly appreciate Cook notedEarlier as Apple reported results for its fiscal 2018 second quarter Cook had said that in India we set a new firsthalf recordAccording to Hong Kongbased Counterpoint Research Apple had a mere 1 per cent market share during the second quarter AprilJune period its lowest in recent history owing to changes in its distribution strategy and domestic assembling not picking up paceIn 2017 Apple sold nearly 32 million iPhones in IndiaIn India the worlds thirdlargest smartphone market the Cupertinobased iPhone maker has not crossed sales of 23 per cent despite arriving in the country almost a decade backTrying hard to make inroads the company is currently going through an overhaul under Michel Coulomb the new head of the India operations who took over from Sanjay Kaul in December last yearThe iPhone maker is also seeking tax relief and other incentives from the government to begin assembling more handsets in the country and its proposal to set up a manufacturing unit is reportedly being evaluatedAt the Q3 earnings call Cook said the company had a stellar quarter in services which generated alltime record revenue of 95 billion fueled in part by doubledigit growth in its overall active installed basePaid subscriptions from Apple and third parties surpassed 300 million an increase of more than 60 per cent in the past year aloneMaestri said that Apple sold 413 million iPhones with doubledigit unit growth in several markets including the US Canada Germany Switzerland Mexico Hong Kong Russia the Middle East and AfricaAccording to Singaporebased market research firm Canalys Apple shipped 35 million Watches globally in the second quarter of 2018 30 per cent more than in the same period last year and India was a surprise addition to the tech giants listIndia is a surprising addition to the list of countries But this is a good strategy by Airtel and Reliance Jio to retain their highvalue customers in a bid to minimise churn in a cutthroat market noted Senior Analyst Jason LowCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever