Apple bucks India’s smartphone slump with double-digit growth in March quarter; Cook ‘over the moon’

Apple CEO Tim Cook reported a record 18th consecutive quarter in India during his penultimate earnings call, before handing over the reins to John Ternus. Speaking at the post-March analyst briefing, Cook, who will hold a quarterly call in June, described himself as “very excited” about the Indian market.

In the early hours of Friday, India time, Apple reported quarterly revenue of $111.2 billion; The company said this was a record for the March quarter. Although the iPhone maker did not disclose country-based revenue figures, Cook said that the last quarter was also a record for Apple in India, with double-digit revenue growth.

This statistic is especially important as India’s smartphone market experienced a significant decline of around 12% in the March quarter, Mint reported on April 13. Apple appears to have bucked this trend, with Cook claiming that iPhones are seeing double-digit growth in India.

“It’s been great to see how we’ve continued to grow in India in recent years; it’s part of our larger effort to connect with even more customers in emerging markets around the world. I think it’s a huge opportunity for us. We’ve been focused on that for a while now. It’s the world’s second-largest smartphone market and the third-largest PC market. Even though we’ve done extremely well there for quite some time, we still have a modest share, which shows the opportunity that we have,” Cook said.

Underlining that Apple is focusing on India, Cook added that the country’s rising middle class is one of the company’s biggest targets worldwide. “More than half of the customers across most of our categories, from iPhone to Mac to iPad to Watch, are new to this product. This is contributing very well to the growth of the install base. Net net, I’m incredibly excited about India,” he said.

Apple also posted double-digit growth in sales of its iPad tablet range in India in the March quarter, Cook said, which analysts said reflected the increasing maturity of the company’s customer base. Cook also announced technology services firm Freshworks’ corporate order of 5,000 units of the company’s MacBook Air and Pro laptops for its India employees.

growing dominance

All this has transformed Apple from a niche player to a dominant force at the heart of India’s electronics economy. Data from independent market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) India said Apple finished calendar year 2025 as the fifth best-selling brand in the country’s smartphone market, selling 14.5 million iPhones, or about 9.5% of the 152 million smartphones sold in India during the year.

This was the first year that Apple ranked in the top five in India. The Indian smartphone market is the second largest in the world with annual sales of more than $43 billion. With its increasing revenue share, Apple is expected to surpass India in revenue market share by 2025.

Tarun Pathak, director of research at market research firm Counterpoint India, said: “Apple remained the leading company by value in India for the third consecutive quarter, with over 25% value share and 9% volume share, driven by the continued momentum of the iPhone 17 series. This growth is the result of a very focused approach across its products, channels and operations. Beyond iPhones, Apple had a solid quarter in the Mac and iPad categories, stronger than ever.”

With Indian buyers turning to other product lines beyond the iPhone, Pathak noted that Apple saw a record number of new users entering its ecosystem this quarter.

Apple is on track to grow for an eighth consecutive year in India, but challenges are mounting. Analysts from IDC and Counterpoint predict iPhone sales will be just under 16 million units in 2026; This is a huge jump from sales of 1.5 million in 2019. But the company is facing the slowest growth in iPhone sales in eight years, as annual growth has slowed to around 12%. Apple also continues to use India as an increasingly important manufacturing base; iPhones account for nearly 50% of India’s $48 billion electronics exports in 2025.