Reliance Jio took over the market as soon as it was out and needless to say, it ruined the business of many networks considering the high speed and lucrative offers it came up with. Taking into account its 4G coverage in the country, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, stated that his firm “couldn’t be more excited” regarding the huge investments that are to be made in the nation’s high-speed telecom networks; however, at one fell swoop, he also accepted that smartphones of Apple have “not done as well” in India.
In the fourth quarter earnings call of the firm, the CEO stated,
“Looking ahead, we’re seeing some very exciting developments in India. Reliance Jio is rolling out a first-of-its-kind all-IP network in India with 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages across the country.”
As per Tim, Apple is to partner with Reliance Jio that is providing service for one full year absolutely free of cost to people purchasing new iPhones for making sure that users get the experience of “great iPhone performance”.
In his words,
“Our iPhone sales in India were up over 50 per cent in fiscal 2016 compared to the prior year, and we believe we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of this large and growing market opportunity.”
Nevertheless, Cook observed,
“Apple’s smartphone has “not done as well” in India in general and one of the key reasons for that is the “(high-speed telecom networks) infrastructure hasn’t been there”. But this year or this year and next year, there are enormous investments going in on 4G and we couldn’t be more excited about that because it really takes a great network working with iPhone to produce that great experience for people. And so I see a lot of the factors moving in the right direction there.”
What’s more, Cook also seems to have a very optimistic view with regard to Modi government’s efforts in the field of developing infrastructure as well as creating jobs. According to him,
“I also think the government is much more focused on the infrastructure and on creating jobs, which is fantastic, because you really need the kind of infrastructure and the technology to do that.”
When Tim Cook was asked whether India has the capability to become as big market as China as far as sale of Apple iPhones is concerned, the CEO stated that we must take into consideration the population transferring into middle class in the next 10 years along with the country’s per capita income.
“Will it be as big as China? I think it’s clear that the population of India will exceed China sometime in probably the next decade or so, maybe less than that. I think it will take longer for the GDP to rival it, but that’s not critical for us to have a great success there.”
He added,
“What is important for Apple in India is that there are going to be a lot of people in the middle class who will really want a smartphone, and I think we can compete well for some percentage of those. And given our starting point, even though we’ve been growing a lot, there is a lot of headroom there in our mind, and so we are working very hard to realise that opportunity.”
Just to inform, iPhone’s latest edition had been launched in the country on 7th October.
