Apple CEO Tim Cook said on August 4 that the company's two company-owned stores in India exceeded expectations, despite the iPhone maker posting its all-time highest-ever sales in the country last quarter, led by smartphones.
"We continued to see strong results in emerging markets, driven by robust iPhone sales, with June quarter total revenue records in India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UAE," Cook said during the company's earnings call with analysts. The company grew by "strong double digits" in India.
Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri further said the company posted “an all-time record in India.” This boosted Apple’s sales in the Europe segment where it accounts for sales in emerging markets like India, Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe.
Cook further said the company’s first two retail stores in India are currently beating expectations in terms of how they're doing. “We continue to work on building out the channel and putting more investment in our direct-to-consumer offers as well,” he said.
The Apple CEO said since India is the second largest smartphone market in the world, the company “ought to be doing really well there”.
“And where I'm really pleased with our growth there, we're still -- we still have a very, very modest and low share in the smartphone market. And so I think that it's a huge opportunity for us. And we're putting the -- all of our energies in making that occur,” he said.