Apple is stepping up its efforts to attract Indian businesspeople and targeting enterprises implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) as it attempts to increase its share of the Indian smartphone market.
Canadian cell phone maker BlackBerry, which entered the Indian market about nine years ago, has sold more BlackBerry phones in India compared to any other country. Following the launch of its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices it is expecting to penetrate the market even more. But while celebrating its new flagship, the company has threats to worry about.
One of its biggest rivals, Apple, is attempting to increase its Indian market share with a subtle shift in its strategy. After selling iPhones for more than four years in India, a new distribution model comes into play which is helping Apple push sales of iPhones harder in India.
It has now expanded its sales through a number of distributors and premium resellers. “In terms of installed base, currently BlackBerry leads Apple in India. However, the rate of growth is much stronger for Apple than BlackBerry,” said Katyayan Gupta, mobility analyst at Forrester. This is the result of extensive marketing and payment plans which makes it more affordable.
As a result, iPhone shipments have increased significantly in the second half of 2012. Between October and December last year, Indian shipments have almost tripled from 90,000 units in the previous quarter to 250,000 units, making iPhone the second largest smartphone in terms of revenue and the fifth largest by volume in India.
“Apple is primarily growing in the enterprise segment because of the BYOD trend. The scope of a business smartphone has changed from company-buying-and-giving-to-employee, to employee-buying-and-getting-into-organization. This is where consumers have made a choice to go for Apple,” Gupta said. In India, 88% of director-and-above level executive employees choose the smartphones that they use at work and below this level, 80% of the employees enjoy the same freedom.
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