India to have 10 mn iPhone users in 2018

Apple is set to be the 11th brand in smartphones in India to have more than 10 million users in the country, according to a new report on Friday.

As of end 2017, there were 8.9 mn iPhone users in India and with an addition of estimated three million units in 2018, the company would surpass the 10 million mark, according to data provided by Mobilytiks, a big data analytics programme in India for mobile handsets introduced by market research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR).

However, if Apple decides to go aggressive with its assembly plans in India, the milestone would be achieved sooner through the year as that would give Apple entry into mid premium smartphone market through SE and other earlier versions of iPhone, the report said.

There are already 10 brands having surpassed this milestone. Established brands like Samsung have even surpassed the 100 million mark by having more than 120 million smartphone users as of 2017 end.

At the same time, emerging brands like Xiaomi had over 28 million smartphone users.

However, in a price sensitive market like India where 56 per cent of the smartphones sold are still sub Rs 10,000, achieving a 10 million active users milestone is a remarkable accomplishment, the report said.

Apple will shall achieve this feat irrespective of its "Make in India" strategy with the average level of three million shipments it does in a year, it added.

--IANS

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