Why iPhone is losing the race and Apple needs to rethink its India strategy

With Apple shipping less than 1 million iPhones in the first half of 2018, which is fewer than 2 per cent of the estimated 60 million smartphones that were shipped in India during the same period, Apple seems to be struggling to compete with its rivals in the country, reports The Verge.

According to the report, Apple's rival Samsung shipped 17.4 million while Xiaomi shipped 19 million smartphones to India in the same time period.

The Verge reports that this slump in iPhone sales comes after a steady growth in the numbers for the company during 2016 and 2017 when it shipped 2.6 million and 3.2 million units. The report says that iPhones smartphone market share has dropped to 1 per cent, which is its lowest in recent history, as of April-June quarter.

Devices priced in the top slots (Apple's iPhone X 256GB is priced at over Rs 100,000) in a price sensitive market like India has been a reason for Apple's struggle in India, The Verge report says.

Apple's most popular devices in India are iPhone SE and iPhone 6 which were launched two and four years ago. With available discounts, both the iPhone SE and iPhone 6 fall in the bracket of Rs 20,000 - Rs 30,000 which makes them more accessible to the Indian audience and hence the popularity.