iPhone sales slump as market share goes down to 2.4 per cent

Apple saw a decline in its global sales number this year as for the first time adoption of the iPhone went down. It has been a similar story for India, world’s third biggest smartphone consumer market, as the company accounted for only 800,000 of the total 30.7 million smartphones that were shipped in the second quarter. According to a report by Strategy Analytics, this is a drop of 35 per cent annually. This drop has also resulted in a dip in the company’s market share from 4.5 per cent last year to 2.4 per cent. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has shown his interest in India as he recently visited the country to explore opportunities to expand the business. “We just announced a first of its kind design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS and we opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development. We’re looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road, and we see huge potential for that vibrant country.” The company hopes to open retail stores in the country but is currently trying to find a workaround the Indian government’s local sourcing rules which demand that a multinational company source 30 percent of its components in India before retail establishments can operate. The same report concluded that out of the 30.7 million smartphones shipped in India since Q2 2015 out of which Android smartphones account for around 29.8 million. In terms of operating systems, Android’s market share grew from 90 percent to 97 percent, while Apple’s market share has fallen from 4.5 percent to 2.4 percent.