India an extraordinary market, lot of headroom for growth: Apple’s Tim Cook

Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Tim Cook on Friday said that India is a “major focus” for the tech giant and the two stores it opened in the country are doing better than anticipated. He added that Apple currently has a low share of the Indian market, and there is a lot of space to grow.

In the tech major’s fourth quarter 2023 earnings call, Cook said, “We had an all-time revenue record in India, we grew very strong double digits. It’s an incredibly exciting market for us and a major focus of ours. We have a low share in a large market and so it would seem that there’s a lot of headroom there.”

“We see an extraordinary market—a lot of people moving into the middle class…Lots of positives, we put two retail stores there and they are doing better than we anticipated—it’s still early going but they are off to a good start and I couldn’t be happier with how things are going at the moment,” he added.

Cook also said that the iPhone revenue was ahead of the company’s expectations, and in India, it recorded an all-time high. Also Read:

Apple also announced financial results for its fourth quarter, which ended September 30, 2023. The company posted quarterly revenue of $89.5 billion, down one per cent year over year from $90.1 billion.

Responding to a question on comparing Apple’s growth momentum in India and China over the years, Cook said each country has its own journey, and he wouldn’t want to play the comparison game.

Apple’s chief financial officer (CFO) Luca Maestri noted that the company is particularly pleased with its performance in emerging markets, with revenue reaching a record high in 2023 and double-digit growth in constant currency.

“We are expanding our direct presence in these markets from new Apple retail stores in India to online stores in Vietnam and Chile,” Maestri said.

Tim Cook was in India in April, his first trip to the country in seven years, to open Apple’s first official retail store in the country in Mumbai, followed by the launch of a second store in New Delhi. The Apple CEO had termed the opening of Apple’s first two stores in India a milestone for the company.

Cook said on Friday, “And nowhere does the magic of Apple come alive more than it does in our stores over the past year, we’ve continued to find ways to connect with even more customers. We welcomed customers to our first-ever retail locations in India.”