Apple has taken several steps to beef up iPhone sales in India but the moves don’t appear to be working. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple sold less than one million iPhones in the first half of 2018, signifying a major disappointment for the company.
Currently, Apple only carries 2-percent market share in India, selling a minuscule 3.2 million iPhones in the country in 2017. Sales appear to slowing down even more with less than half a million iPhones sold in the first half of the year. If the figures keep the same pace, it’ll miss the 2 million mark for the year, meaning a year-to-year sales drop of more than 33-percent.
India is the third largest market in the world and it’s not a country Apple wants to miss out on. Which is why earlier this year it moved production of the iPhone 6S and iPhone SE to the country to cut back on high tariffs which can increase the price of the phones by 15 to 20-percent.
Apple’s production plant isn’t running up to speed yet and it’ll take a while before it does. Until then, the company is struggling to keep up with much cheaper phones from Xiaomi and Samsung being sold in the country.
Even through the struggles, Apple is not going to give up on India any time soon. It’s just struggling to find the formula that works in the country like it did so in China for so many years until it broke through with the Plus line.
