Apple has been doing well in the Asian market, but things are not going so well in its best market in this region – China. In a bid to expand its reach in the region, Cupertino was determined to break into the Indian market even further and expand its current share of the smartphone market.
In a proposed plan, the company was looking to improve its sales by bringing used iPhones to the Indian market. However, this plan seems to have been scrapped by the Indian government. According to a source who wished to remain unknown, India has decided to reject Apple’s plan to sell refurbished iPhones in the country. While this is not the best news Apple would have loved to hear, there is no clear explanation of why this plan was rejected.
Apple has been secretly pushing the Indian government to allow them to sell used iPhones in the country as it looks to expand its reach in the huge country.
China has and still is the main market for Apple in Asia. However, recent times have seen the company encounter a number of issues in the country that are resulting in a slump of sales. As if to make up for this fact, Apple thought to sell refurbished iPhones to the Indian market, where it currently has a total smartphone market share of just 2%, would help revive its dwindling presence in the Asian region.
Apple might be finding it hard to break into the Indian market thanks to the strict rules in use in the country. One such rule that could be playing a huge role here is where any company planning to set up a branded store in the country must source 30% of all products from local companies before doing so. This makes it somehow difficult for some players to get into this booming economy.
The iPhone SE has been considered a hit in China, but India has a seriously booming middle class that would have appreciated a refurbished iPhone at, say, half the price of a new one.
Apple started chasing this Indian market back in January despite the fact that it doesn’t or didn’t plan to source 30% of its products from India. Somewhere along the way, it was thought that the company would be given a special exemption from this rule because of its “cutting edge” as well as “state of the art” products, but as it seems, this is not going to happen.
In a recent interview on CNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook was very vocal about how India remains to be an important market for his company’s future. However, the current setback will mean the company finds other ways of laying its foundation in India.