Apple’s market share falls in growing India

New York: Apple Inc is considering India as one of its major markets for the future, but sales in 2016 so far fell 35 percent on year over year (y-o-y). This is resulting a considerable loss in overall marketshare for the global technology giant. Android remains the dominant platform in India as the operating marketshare rose from 90 percent in 2015 to 97.1 percent in 2016, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple devices contributed to the Android’s gains, but predominantly from the share of other operating systems falling from 5.5 percent to 0.5 percent from 2015 to 2016. India is a market that’s growing by 28 percent year-over-year. As a result in the drop in Apple iPhone sales, Apple’s marketshare fell from 4.5 percent to 2.4 percent.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said during his visit to India in May, “we are in India for the next thousand years. Our horizon is very long. We are focused on best, not most. So it doesn’t bother me that we don’t have top market share.” Cook had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought government support for the company’s future plans for India.

Earlier, Apple launched a technology center in Hyderabad, focused on Apple Maps development. In July, Apple Inc leased 40,000 square feet in Bengaluru for a planned design and development accelerator. Neither software development center will have any effect on sourcing percentages.