Apple inaugurated its first two stores in India this week, in New Delhi and Mumbai. CEO Tim Cook personally attended both openings in the country that has long eluded Apple's business. Most of the Indians in the past have chosen mostly for cheaper electronics, for example smartphones from Chinese brands.
After having received the opportunity under Indian law to sell directly to consumers by opening up an assembly facility in the country in 2019, Apple had first launched an online store in 2020. Since then, there has been an increase in sales of iPhones. By assembling phones in India, the company is also avoiding steep import fees, which is making its products more reasonably priced for the Indians. Yet, iPhones and MacBooks remain out of the reach of many, including many urban Indian surveyed online by Statista.
In line with Apple's more heavy online presence in the
country, respondents were more likely to have purchased digital Apple products
or products from a digital Apple store in 2022.
Upon surveying, it was found out that between 13 and 15 percent of urban Indians were or had been an Apple Music or Apple TV+ customer in the past 12 months, while 12 percent said they had ordered from Apple.com in India. A more affordable Apple product, headphones like EarPods and AirPods, was the physical product that reached most consumers in India - 12 percent -, closely followed by the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad at 11 percent. Only a few people had MacBooks and stationary Mac computers available to them (measured on a household level): 6-8 percent.
