Consumers Are Holding Their Older iPhones a Bit Longer Than in the Past: Tim Cook

Although Apple CEO Tim Cook skipped mentioning India directly during the company’s earnings call with analysts, he stressed that there are several factors why iPhone sales are not picking up in the emerging markets. “The customers are holding on to their older iPhones a bit longer than in the past. “When you pair this with the macroeconomic factors, particularly in emerging markets, it resulted in iPhone revenue that was down 15% from last year,” Cook told analysts late Tuesday.

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“One of those factors, weak macro-conditions in some emerging markets, was significantly more severe than we originally foresaw, especially in Greater China. That challenge was compounded by quarterly iPhone upgrades that were lower than we anticipated,” Cook explained.

Apple CEO said the foreign exchange is another key factor behind the slow iPhone sales. “The relative strength of the US dollar has made our products more expensive in many parts of the world.

“The foreign exchange issues amplified that difference in international markets, in particular, the emerging markets which tended to move much more significantly versus the dollar,” he said.

According to him, subsidy is probably the bigger of the issues in the developed markets. “Third is our battery replacement programme. For millions of customers, we made it inexpensive and efficient to replace the battery and hold onto their existing iPhones a bit longer,” Cook explained.

Apple has already begun reducing the price of the iPhone for third-party distributors in China and may follow the same in India where the iPhone is considered very expensive.