India to power Apple’s growth

There has been a strong impetus for high-tech electronic manufacturing in India and the country will power tech giant Apple’s growth over the next decade, industry analysts said on Friday. Apple’s revenue in India rose nearly 42 per cent (on-year) last year to $8.7 billion, according to foreign brokerage Morgan Stanley. The iPhone shipments grew about 39 per cent to 9.2 million units last year. Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group at market intelligence firm CMR, told IANS that the country is adding more upstream capabilities to the electronics ecosystem. “Apple has been a prime beneficiary of this conducive policy environment. At Cybermedia research, our market estimates point to Apple recording a significant 40 per cent year on year growth in iPhone shipments in 2023,” he said. Ram said that India will power Apple’s growth over the next decade, “just like China did in the last”. Riding on the premiumisation trend in India, iPhones grew 28 per cent from 4 per cent market share in 2022 to more than 6 per cent in 2023, according to latest industry data. In the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, iPhone shipments saw seven per cent growth in India, according to the latest CMR data. As India doubles down on local manufacturing, Apple assembled iPhones worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore in India in 2023. Apple’s manufacturing in the country is part of the goals set under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. @@@