Apple's prospects for the iPhone look dim in China, with declining market share and competition from more advanced products. That is one reason why Apple is now focusing on the second-largest smartphone market in the world: India.
"I sort of view India as where China was seven to 10 years ago from that point of view," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said during an investor call last year. "I think there's a really great opportunity there."
Apple plans to begin manufacturing smartphones in India, starting with the smaller and cheaper iPhone SE, according to the Economic Times. It is also marketing a discontinued version of the iPhone 6 through online retailers for a discounted price of $450 -- because its products can't command the same premium prices there, CNET reports. This comes after Apple repeatedly failed to get permission from the Indian government to import refurbished phones because of concerns that it would use India as a dumping ground for old technologies.
Apple is repeating the mistakes it made in China. It is relying on its brand recognition to build a market and failing to understand the needs of its customers. By marketing inferior products, it may also be insulting Indian consumers.
Smartphones with capabilities similar to iPhones sell for a fraction of the iPhones' cost, and Apple enjoys practically no brand recognition among the hundreds of millions of Indians who are buying their first devices. It also does not have any form of product lock-in as it does with western consumers who have owned other Apple products and are now buying smartphones.
What's more, Apple has not customized its phones or the applications for them to the needs of Indian consumers; they are the same as in the United States. Try asking Siri to recognize an Indian name or city, and it is clueless. Try asking it to play a Bollywood tune, as I have, and you'll also be banging your head against the wall. And forget having support for Indian languages: Everything is in English.
Apple does offer an Indian version of its music-streaming service, but it is expensive and largely inferior to those of local competitors, such as Saavn, Gaana and Hungama. It also has the same problem as the Apple India App Store: It requires credit cards, which less than 1 percent of the population have.
This is no way to conquer a market.
Well-to-do Indian consumers who can afford iPhones want the latest and greatest, not hand-me-downs. They aren't buying iPhones because they are technically superior; they are buying them for social gratification.
And Apple doesn't even come close on price. Take the Lyf phones that telecom giant Reliance Industries is marketing. Its lower end smartphones sell for $45 and come with three months of unlimited data, text and calls. Higher-end models cost about $150 and have features comparable to the iPhone 7, which sells for $750 and higher.
Until recently, Samsung and India's Micromax dominated the Indian market. But Chinese brands - such as Vivo, Xiaomi, Lenovo and Oppo - are making major inroads, now enjoying 46 percent market share, according to Counterpoint Research. These companies offer stunning OLED displays (which Apple does not yet offer), state-of-the-art processors, and features that are popular in Asian markets, such as dual SIM capabilities and selfie cameras. The phones are also available in different Indian languages. They use Google's operating system Android, which enables them to have the Google Assistant converse in the Indian languages, including Hindi, that the assistant is learning.
It is also notable that Android has 97 percent market share in India. This means that there is little motivation for Indian developers to write software for the Apple platform and it will always be a laggard for hot new apps.
Apple typically sells its products online or through its very high-end retail stores. FactorDaily says the company is planning to open three Apple stores in India this year. But this is not the way to reach hundreds of millions of people in villages and small towns. Chinese vendor Oppo, for example, achieved great success by selling through 35,000 electronics retailers and setting up 180 service centers, according to Bloomberg.
If Apple is serious about entering India, it needs to do more than assemble components and open stores there. It must develop new products and services that suit the Indian market, and it should buy local competitors, such as Saavn and Gaana. With 500 million more people about to be connected to the Internet via smartphones, the opportunities are endless.
- Wadhwa is Distinguished Fellow and professor at Carnegie Mellon University Engineering at Silicon Valley and a director of research at Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke. His past appointments include Stanford Law School, the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard Law School, and Emory University.
Special to The Washington Post by Vivek Wadhwa
The Washington Post
Sat Mar 18 2017
By marketing inferior products, it may also be insulting Indian consumers.
Panama bersedia untuk pemilihan Presiden
Panama bersedia untuk pilihan raya Presiden di tengah-tengah krisis politik yang dihangatkan dengan rasa tidak puas hati terhadap kerajaan memerintah.
Penunjuk perasaan pro Palestin ditahan polis Virginia
Polis menahan beberapa penunjuk perasaan di Universiti Virginia pada Sabtu semasa puluhan pelajar menduduki perkhemahan pro-Palestin di kampus selepas menyifatkan perhimpunan itu sebagai menyalahi undang-undang.
Hampir 100% sedia, TH tunggu kt pertama 9 Mei ini
Ikuti perkongsian Editor Astro AWANI yang juga petugas media musim haji 1445H/2024H mengenai persediaan Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) menjelang ketibaan KT pertama jemaah haji Malaysia di Madinah pada 9 Mei ini.
Banjir luar biasa landa Afrika Timur
Kawasan di Ethiopia, Kenya dan Tanzania yang biasanya gersang serta dilanda kemarau mengalami taburan hujan luar biasa.
Isteriku ternyata lelaki, terbongkar selepas 12 hari menikah
Adinda kini telah ditahan pihak polis selepas laporan dibuat oleh keluarga AK.
Selesai di Kedah, PM meriahkan pula Rumah Terbuka Aidilfitri di Pulau Pinang
Sejurus selesai Majlis Sambutan Aidilfitri MADANI peringkat Kedah di Jitra, Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim terus bergegas ke Pulau Pinang bagi menghadiri Rumah Terbuka Aidilfitri Persatuan Khalifah Jelutong malam tadi.
Penunjuk perasaan pro-Palestin ditahan polis Virginia
Pasukan polis anti rusuhan dilaporkan menyerbu kawasan perkhemahan sekitar jam 3 petang waktu tempatan.
Mari meriahkan hari terakhir Program MADANI Rakyat 2024 Zon Utara
Acara penutup yang dijadual bermula 10 pagi itu diadakan serentak dengan Majlis Sambutan Aidilfitri MADANI 2024 Peringkat Pulau Pinang.
Seramai 150 petugas Tabung Haji sertai ziarah ke tempat bersejarah di Madinah
Seramai 150 petugas Tabung Haji (TH) bagi musim haji 1445H/2024 yang tiba di Madinah pada 2 Mei lalu, semalam dibawa melakukan aktiviti ziarah luar bagi memberi pengalaman yang akan dilalui oleh jemaa
Lelaki rogol anak kandung hingga lahir dua anak
Perbuatan suspek berusia 40-an itu terbongkar selepas mangsa yang kini berusia 20 tahun membuat laporan polis.
Google bayar Apple hingga AS$20 bilion pada 2022, kekal enjin carian utama Safari
Google sedia bekerjasama dengan Apple untuk menjadi enjin carian utama dan pembayaran dilihat meningkat dari tahun ke tahun.
Apple dijangka tambah ciri AI pada Safari melalui iOS 18
Ciri kecerdasan buatan pada Safari kelak akan memudahkan beberapa proses pelayaran.
Apple Pencil baharu hadir dengan sistem haptik
Apabila digunakan pada skrin iPad, pengguna boleh merasakan tindak balas haptik seakan menggunakan pensel sebenar.
iPad Pro mungkin dijana dengan cip Apple M4 terbaharu, fokus ciri AI
Cip Apple M4 dijangka memfokuskan kepada keupayaan enjin neural yang disertakan bersama dengannya membolehkan ia menawarkan ciri AI yang lebih baik.
Apple perkenal HomePod, HomePod Mini di Malaysia, harga bermula RM529
Kedua-duanya akan mula dijual 10 Mei 2024 untuk pasaran tempatan.
Apple dalam perbincangan guna teknologi OpenAI dalam iOS 18 - Laporan
iOS 18 akan membawakan perubahan paling besar untuk sistem operasi iPhone tahun ini dan integrasi sistem AI akan akhirnya didedahkan.
'Made in Malaysia' - Apple punyai 19 kilang pembekal di negara ini
Malaysia merupakan salah satu negara yang mempunyai beberapa kilang pembekal yang menawarkan komponen kepada Apple.
Syarikat induk Google kini kembali bernilai lebih AS$2 trilion
ALPHABET, syarikat induk disebalik Google kini sekali lagi berjaya mencapai nilai pasaran semasa melangkaui AS$2 trilion.
TSMC akan hasilkan cip 1.6nm menjelang 2026
Menurut TSMC, teknologi 1.6mm akan memberikan peningkatan prestasi sehingga 8-10% untuk voltan yang sama serta pengurangan penggunaan kuasa antara 15-20% pada kelajuan yang sama.
Apple dilapor kurangkan pengeluaran Vision Pro susulan permintaan rendah
Walaupun jualan pada awalnya amat memberangsangkan, momentum tidak berterusan kerana unit awal hanya dibeli oleh peminat paling tegar Apple.