Bad Apple: Inside the tech giant's smartphone struggles in India

The world’s most profitable smartphone manufacturer is in crisis in India. A new country head is incoming, but the task ahead of him is massive

Vandana, 3 Dec 2018

Apple, once a leader in India’s premium smartphone segment, is in the midst of a slowdown

Chinese and Korean competitors are matching it on specs and design while beating it on price

Despite e-commerce pushing smartphone sales, Apple does not have a dedicated online strategy. It has faltered offline as well

A new country head is on the horizon, but the road ahead is rough and long for the tech giant

Amidst a cluster of stores at Delhi’s popular IT and computer peripherals market in Nehru Place is eWorld, an Apple-authorised reseller. The store is desolate. A resigned silence combines with the white interiors to create an eerie, sterile emptiness. Even as one enters, the staff show no enthusiasm to push products. Their inertia is the result of how few takers there are for these high-end phones today. The response to the new iPhone models has been extremely disappointing, says a salesperson.

AUTHOR

Vandana

Vandana is based in Delhi. She covers vertically focussed startups in consumer internet space and also writes on travel tech and smartphones for The Ken. She has spent 13 years in journalism covering a wide range of subjects- equity markets, mutual funds to education and skilling, working at organisations such as Business Standard, CNBC TV18 and The Week in the past.

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