Despite facing headwinds in India, Apple CEO Tim Cook is still betting on turning around its performance in the long term. Speaking to analysts on Friday, Cook said that import duties combined with a weak rupee are proving a challenge in the short term.

“These are markets where currencies have weakened over the recent period. In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices and those markets are not growing the way we would like to see,” he said.

“But I view these as speed bumps along a very long journey, though. And the long-term, I think, is very, very strong there,” Cook said.

Cook said that Apple has had productive discussions with the Indian government on the issue of setting up stores in the country. “We’ve been in discussions with them, and the discussions are going quite well,” he said.

Falling iPhone sales

Apple has seen iPhone sales in the country declining over the past few quarters even as its Mac computers enjoy better sales.

“We were especially pleased with Mac momentum in emerging markets, with strong growth in Latin America, India, West Asia and Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe,” said Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri.

Cook said Apple’s business in India in the fourth quarter was flat. “Obviously, we would like to see huge growth. Brazil was down somewhat compared to the previous year. And so I think, or at least the way that I saw these, is each one of the emerging markets had a bit of a different story.”

According to analysts, iPhone sales in the quarter ended September 30 fell by half to 450,000 units in India compared with 900,000 units last year.

This also led to the company’s marketshare dropping by more than half to just about 1 per cent of the Indian market.

The coming quarter is expected to be offer no respite for Apple. While typically third and fourth quarters are the best for iPhone sales, this festival season has showered its blessings on Chinese smartphone-makers instead of the iconic Apple brand.

 

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