Apple India reports 17 percent revenue growth, its lowest in 6 years; demonetisation, low demand for iPhone 8 probable reasons

Apple India has posted its revenue numbers for the 2016-17 financial year, and has shown a 17 percent growth over last year. But when compared with its growth over the last six years, this has been the slowest year so far. The Cupertino-based company had reached a 53 percent growth in the 2015-16 year period over the previous year. [caption id=“attachment_4034243” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] People standing in front of an Apple logo. Reuters[/caption] In terms of revenue, Apple India has shown an improvement, earning Rs 11,618.7 crore in FY17 as compared to Rs 9,937 crore in FY16. The report has been filed with the Registrar of Companies according to The Economic Times. According to analysts who have spoken to ET, the pace of the current fiscal will remain slow due to the low demand for the iPhone 8 / 8 Plus in India this year. Also, retailers have expressed a disappointing sales scenario for the iPhone 8 / 8 Plus. The higher demand for the iPhone X models is yet to meet up with the supply. However, analysts who spoke to ET said that the sales volumes of the iPhone X models would not be too high, thanks to the exorbitant price point of Rs 89,000 and Rs 1,02,000 for the two variants. The demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes is another reason being stated by analysts as the cause for slowdown in growth. Apple CEO Tim Cook had also expressed, in a conference call with investors, that the demonetisation in India was ‘still definitely having some overhang’. According to Counterpoint Research, Apple India has sold around 2.9 million units in India in FY17 as compared to 2.2 million units in the previous year. A significant number of the volumes sold is thanks to the older iPhone models, which get a price correction once the current generation phones launch. This is leading to the lowering of the average selling price of the iPhones, which is hitting revenue growth. Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research told ET that the average selling price of the iPhone in India has come down by 2 percent. Also older iPhone models make up around 40 percent of the total iPhone sales. In a report in the Business Standard, Counterpoint Research has estimated the iPhone sales volumes to touch 3.5 million in this fiscal. When it comes to phone sales above the Rs 30,000 category, Apple is a leader with a 35 percent market share followed by OnePlus with a 32 percent share and then Samsung with a 31 percent share. But the Rs 30,000 plus market is only about 3 percent of the total smartphone volume sold in India.