Apple focusing on India to tap huge opportunities, says Tim Cook
NEW YORK: Apple is bullish on India and plans to launch all its initiatives, including retail, in the country where it has an “extremely low” overall market share, the tech giant’s CEO Tim Cook has said.
India, the third largest smartphone market in the world, has huge opportunities for Apple, Cook said. “We have extremely low share in that market overall,” Cook said during Apple’s second quarter 2018 earnings call on Tuesday when the tech giant posted quarterly revenue of $61.1 billion, an increase of 16% from the year-ago quarter.
“We’re thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iphone, Services and Wearables,” said Cook. International sales accounted for 65% of the quarter’s revenue for the Cupertino, California-based company.
Cook said Apple was “putting a lot of energy” in India and working with the carriers in the market, and “they’re investing enormously on the LTE (LongTerm Evolution) networks.” He noted that the infrastructure in India has come “quite a ways” since Apple began to put a lot of energy in the Indian market “because of their leadership and so forth.”
Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri said that Apple’s Mac set a new March quarter revenue record, including new records in both the Americas and Greater China. “We sold 4.1 million Macs, generating year-over-year growth in many emerging markets including Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and India,” Maestri said.
Apple’s board has also approved a new $100 billion share repurchase authorisation and a 16% increase in our quarterly dividend, he said. Cook said in India, Apple set a new first-half record.