This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West. It’s been just over a year since Apple opened its first flagship stores in India – first in Mumbai, and then a smaller store in Delhi. After years of watching Android dominate the world’s most populous country, 2023 was the start of a real push by Apple to sell the iPhone to India’s growing middle class.
And it was accompanied by an effort to manufacture more iPhones in India – something that has achieved mixed success . Last year, I wrote that Apple’s bet on India was much more important than splashy product launches like the Vision Pro. This week, we have our first indication that the bet is paying off.
Apple’s total annual sales in India jumped by 33% to nearly $8 billion, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday . Apple normally doesn’t disclose country-by-country sales figures, so it gives us a rare look at the company’s retail business on the subcontinent. To be clear, it’s still early days: India represents just 2% of Apple’s overall sales, and most estimates have Android controlling over 80% of the market.
But those two figures show why India is so important to Apple: it’s a major market with plenty of room for growth. There were real reasons to think it wouldn’t have worked, though. While last year marked the opening of official Apple stores, iPhones had been widely available in India for years, including in informal secondhand marke.