Apple Inc.'s iPhone sales are reportedly up by a powerful 400 percent in the growing market of India. The company's sales increase seem to be the direct result of some aggressive pricing strategies that have made the phone more affordable and thus a more viable option for Indian consumers.
Apple Insider reports, according to analyst Sunil Tirumalai, Apple's equal monthly installment (EMI) coupled with cash-back programs have caused the huge bump in sales in India.
India's Economic Times reports that the company used to push between 70,000 and 80,000 units per month before the pricing deals. Before the EMI deals, iPhones were simply too unaffordable in India. Low-cost feature phones had previously dominated the smartphone market there. The iPhone was too high-end of a device for a majority of Indian consumers. However, after the 400 percent sales boom, iPhone is reportedly making up 3 percent of the entire Indian market.
The new approach by Apple in the world's second-largest populated country had a lot to do with heavy advertising. The real boom came from interest-free EMI initiative, which helped buyers put down a partial payment on an iPhone 4 or 4s and then pay out the cost within the next six to 12 months.
"The 4-9% implicit discount coupled with the option of easy EMIs spread over 6-12 months became popular," Tirumalai said. "Within a few months, our discussions with handset retailers indicated that iPhone sales went up 3-4x, forcing companies to respond."
In April, Apple added an 18 percent cash discount to the deal. This made the partial down payment less necessary. This resulted in a discount of 23 to 27 percent, making the iPhone much more attractive for Indian consumers who were interested in a smartphone for the first time.
Apple Insider reports that the company began offering trade-in rebates in early May, allowing students to get 7,77 rupees (about $134) off of the iPhone.
