Apple's sales in India, a key market, surge to record USD 8 billion: Bloomberg

Apple Inc's annual sales in India hit a record of almost $8 billion in the recently concluded financial year 2023-24, reported Bloomberg, quoting a person familiar with the data. Apple's India revenue jumped about 33% in the 12 months through March from $6 billion a year earlier, the Bloomberg report said.

The iPhone maker is going big in India, a key market with a large population, and is the fastest growing among major economies. Notably, Apple now assembles its newest varieties of iPhones here in India. The iPhone maker has two flagship stores in India--one in Delhi and one in Mumbai--launched in 2023.

Apple's pricey iPhones accounted for more than half of the sales, said the person, who asked not to be named as the information isn't public, Bloomberg reported. In 2017, Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme by the Central Government is also likely to have attracted several gadget makers, including Apple, to set up shop in the country.

Apple's iPhone exports have reportedly surged from $6.27 billion in the fiscal year 2022-23 to $12.1 billion in 2023-24. Faced with supply chain disruptions, particularly since the COVID pandemic hit in 2020 and the subsequent flare-up of geopolitical tensions that still continue, many leading global companies, in particular those that are in the manufacturing space, are diversifying their operations across regions. These visible trends of business diversification are basically to reduce risk and increase flexibility.

Apple is also targeting India as a way to diversify its manufacturing and revenue sources beyond China. For companies in such situations, it means exploring emerging global supply chain regions for diversification, and India, given its political stability and huge market opportunity with a dynamic workforce and a steady rise in income levels, is eyed as one of the best places to set up manufacturing bases.

India continued to remain the fastest-growing major economy and is poised to maintain its growth trajectory going ahead. India's economy grew 8.2% in 2023-24, 7.2% in 2022-23, and 8.7% in 2021-22, respectively.

The size of India's GDP is currently ranked 5th, after the US, China, Germany, and Japan. It overtook the UK in 2022. Just a decade ago, Indian GDP was the eleventh largest in the world. Currently, India's GDP is estimated to be around $3.7 trillion. India eyes $5 trillion in the near term.