Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook said he was “over the moon excited” about India after the maker of iPhones and iPads reported yet another quarter of double-digit growth in the country, which is also one of its fastest growing.
The company, which now has six stores in the country, saw similar double-digit growth in the majority of markets such as the US, Latin America, Greater China, Japan and Western Europe. Overall sales of the iPhone, still the flagship product of the company after nearly 20 years of its launch, were about $57 billion in the second quarter.
“If you look at the majority of customers in all of our categories from the iPhone to the Mac to the iPad to the Watch are new to that product there. And so it speaks very well to growing the installed base there. Net-net, I’m over the moon excited about India,” he said in a conference call with analysts.
Sales of both the iPhone and iPad grew in double digits in India.
India has also emerged as a critical manufacturing and export hub of the Cupertino, California-based company. Total iPhone exports for FY26 reached about ₹2 trillion, up from ₹9,351 crore four years ago, according to the Department of Commerce and data submitted by vendors.
With that, the iPhone has emerged as India’s single largest branded export across all major export categories classified under the Harmonised System (HS) code framework, which covers more than 5,000 product groups used in global trade.
Cook is still banking on India’s affluent and upward mobile middle class to drive sales in the country where the company holds a stronghold in the premium category.
“I think it’s a huge opportunity for us. We’ve been focused on this for a while. It’s the second-largest smartphone market in the world and the third-largest PC market. And despite doing extremely well there for quite some time, we still have a modest share. And so I think there’s — that really speaks to the opportunity that we have. There are a lot of people moving into the middle class there, and we’ve got some great products for them, both currently and coming,” he added.
Despite that, challenges remain. India’s over 220 million feature phone users want to upgrade to an entry-level smartphone but are stuck because of affordability, as prices of such phones have surged recently due to the shortage of memory chips.
