JOIN USApple sees a “huge market potential” for its products in India and the technology giant is “really putting energy” in the country which will begin rolling out high-speed wireless networks this year, CEO Tim Cook said.
“This is another huge one. India will be the most populous country in the world in 2022. India today has about 50% of their population at 25 years of age or younger. It’s a very young country. People really want smartphones there, really want smartphones,” Cook said .
He said in emerging markets like India, LTE (wireless) penetration is currently “zero” but as LTE begins to roll out this year in the country, the dynamics will change.
“And so that’s changing. Huge market potential,” he said in response to a question about the Indian market for Apple.
Cook said the company has got “great innovation” in the pipeline and new iPhones that will attract people in markets like India.
Cook said in countries like India, Apple penetration has been less since there is no LTE networks.
“What I see is that countries like India, no LTE, so 0% penetration. They are selling smartphones, and we sell iPhone there. But arguably you can’t get the full value from it,” he said adding that retailers in markets like India are not “huge national kind of retailers.”
“And the carriers don’t sell phones in India. So there’s a lot of work to do,” he said.
While sales for Apple in China, its second-largest market after the United States, fell 11% in the latest quarter, in India iPhone sales were up 56% from a year ago.