Apple at 50: India was once a journey. Now it’s a growth engine

In the mid-1970s, long before he co-founded Apple, a young Steve Jobs travelled to India in search of spiritual clarity. He returned leaner, disillusioned in parts, but also with a sharpened sense of intuition. Something he would later say shaped how he thought about simplicity and design.

Nearly five decades later, as Apple turns 50 on April 1, the company is back in India — not searching, but scaling.

For much of its history, India remained a difficult market for Apple to crack. Price sensitivity and a fragmented retail ecosystem meant the company’s tightly controlled, premium playbook did not quite fit. The iPhone was aspirational, but often out of reach, and Apple’s presence felt limited compared to its dominance in markets like the US and China.


Also Read: Apple’s Biggest Hits: iPhone, Mac, and the products that changed the game

That, however, has been changing steadily, and now, more visibly.

India is now the world’s second-largest smartphone market, yet Apple’s share is still modest. That gap is where the opportunity lies. CEO Tim Cook noted in Q1 FY25 that the iPhone was the top-selling model in India, and the market set a December-quarter record. Still, he said Apple has “very modest share… so lots of upside there.” In other words, India is ripe for growth.

Apple’s installed base is expanding too. CFO Kevan Parekh highlighted “double-digit growth on the [iPhone] install base” in emerging markets like India. Apple may be 50 globally, but its India story is just getting started.

Record revenue and shipments

Apple India’s numbers tell the same story. In FY25 (year ended March 2025), Apple India Private Ltd reported Rs 79,378 crore in revenue, up 18% from FY24, with net profit of Rs 3,196 crore — a 16% rise [according to data from Tofler]. According to a previous report from the Economic Times, analysts are expecting FY26 sales growth to be in the 10-15% range.

Market research firm IDC shows Q3 2025 shipments hit a record 5 million units, giving Apple roughly 10.4% market share — a 26% year-on-year (YoY) jump. That quarter made Apple the fourth-largest smartphone brand in India. Counterpoint Research separately noted that Apple entered the top five by volume during the quarter. Earlier in January, Counterpoint was quoted by TechCrunch as stating that about 15 million iPhones shipped in India during 2025 — nearly triple 2020 volumes — with strong demand for both premium and previous-gen models.

Also Read: Apple Turns 50: Then vs now, one product at a time

In short, Apple is now a top-five player in India. Consumers are choosing the brand, and that is beginning to reflect clearly in both revenue and profit. According to Counterpoint, Apple led the market in value terms in 2025 with a 28% share, helped by festival-driven demand and deeper distribution. The iPhone 16 was the top-shipped model during the year — marking the strongest annual performance for an iPhone in India so far.

“Made in India” goes global

India is no longer just a market, it has now become a manufacturing hub. Earlier in March, Bloomberg reported that Apple increased iPhone production in India by about 53% in 2025 and now makes a quarter of its high-end devices here.

“The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India in 2025, up from 36 million a year earlier,” the report said. For context, it manufactures about 220 million-230 million iPhones a year globally.

“Over half of the US sales of iPhone come from India," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with CNBC in May 2025. Additionally, during the earnings call for Q4 FY25, Cook said that the company set an “all-time revenue record in India”.

In FY25, India produced nearly Rs 5.45 lakh crore worth of smartphones — a 28 times increase from Rs 18,000 crore in 2014-15. Exports hit Rs 2 lakh crore with Apple contributing Rs 1.5 lakh crore of iPhones alone. Local production also helps domestic pricing – India-assembled iPhones avoid China import tariffs, benefiting both Apple and consumers.

Retail, operations, and the road ahead

Apple’s footprint is also growing fast in the country. The first Apple Stores opened in April 2023 in Mumbai and Delhi. By September 2025, the first South India store opened in Bengaluru, along with a Pune location. Apple added its fifth store in Noida in December 2025 and the sixth in Mumbai in February 2026.

Apple India now occupies roughly 634,000 sq ft of office space in Hyderabad’s WaveRock IT park, hosting R&D and corporate teams – similar investments are under way in Bengaluru and Chennai. In 2024, the company also opened a new office in Bengaluru, to seat over 1,200 employees.

Also Read: Design, disruption, and drama: Apple’s most defining controversies

This scale-up signals Apple’s long-term commitment. Earnings calls and statements repeatedly highlight India’s strategic importance. With a rising economy and accelerating smartphone adoption, Apple sees “lots of upside” in expanding sales, services, and ecosystem locally. The company is also training specialists, expanding distribution, and lobbying for retail reforms – all shaping the next chapter in India.

Now, reports suggest that Apple is also in advanced talks with banks and regulatory bodies in India to bring its contactless payment service, Apple Pay to the country — over a decade after it was first launched alongside iOS 8.1 for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Circling back

As Apple completes 50 years, its India story comes full circle. Jobs’s 1974 visit may be legend, but today his legacy lives on in a fast-growing business story. Apple’s presence in India started with a vision of connectivity and creativity — values that still resonate as the market grows.

Record revenues, rising shipments, deepening local production, and new stores show Apple’s India chapter is only beginning. Risks remain — price sensitivity, competition, and regulatory hurdles — but Apple’s investment, from ‘Made in India’ iPhones to hundreds of retail jobs, reflects a calculated bet.

India may have joined late, but with local assembly and store expansion, its role is only growing. By 2030, India could be a pillar of Apple’s next 50 years.