Very excited about Indian market, says Apple's Tim Cook

New Delhi: Outgoing chief executive of Apple Tim Cook said he is over the moon excited about India where the company’s iPhone,iPad and Mac sales grew in double digits with further room for growth. The company said despite its recent success, it only holds a modest market share in the second largest smartphone market and the third largest PC market in the world.

“I think it’s a huge opportunity for us. We have been focused on this for a while. It’s the second largest smartphone market in the world and the third largest PC market. And despite doing extremely well there for quite some time, we still have a modest share,” Cook said during a call with investors Friday.

He added that there are a lot of people moving into the middle class in India. “If you look at the majority of customers in all of our categories from the iPhone to the Mac to the iPad to the watch, they are new to that product there. So it speaks very well to growing the install base there. Net net, I’m over the moon excited about India,” he said.


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Apple opened the sixth retail store in India and has been seeing strong enterprise adoption. Cook said Indian software company Freshworks deployed over 5,000 MacBooks, citing as a win for the company’s push in supplying products to enterprises.

Cook will be stepping into the role of executive chairman at Apple from September 1, 2026 with John Ternus, current senior vice president of hardware engineering being elevated as the new chief executive.

Cook explained this is the perfect moment for him to step into the role of executive chairman from September with the business growing in double-digit in the first half of the year. Cook said Apple has an incredible product roadmap ahead, and they have the right leader to take over in Ternus who Cook said is a “brilliant engineer, a deep thinker, a person of remarkable character, and a born leader.”

Ternus, who was part of the call, said he intends to “continue the deep thoughtfulness, deliberateness, and discipline in financial decision-making” that has characterised Cook's tenure.

Cook said Apple faced shortages in the March quarter primarily for iPhones and Mac, driven by shortages of the advanced manufacturing nodes used to produce Apple’s SoCs (System on Chip). The company expects the shortage to intensify in the ongoing June quarter for the Mac lineup, specifically the Mac Mini, Mac Studio and the new MacBook Neo, as demand for these products have outpaced supply.

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Cook noted that it may take several months to reach a supply-demand balance for these Mac models.

On the memory shortage, Cook said Apple has not faced supply constraints, but rising memory prices are heavily impacting Apple’s financial outlook. Apple faced minimal impact from memory costs in the December quarter and only a moderate impact in the March quarter due to the benefit of carry-in inventory.

However, Apple expects significantly higher memory costs in the June quarter, which will be partially offset by existing inventory. Beyond the current quarter, Cook warned that rising memory costs will drive an increasing impact on Apple’s business. The company is evaluating a range of options to navigate the price increases.

The company’s financials remained resilient despite deep industry-wide concerns regarding rising component costs, particularly for memory, storage and advanced semiconductors. Contrary to market expectations that rising costs might squeeze profit margins, Apple reported a gross margin of 49.3%, a significant increase from 47.1% in the same quarter last year.

Analysts said Apple’s impact was minimal as it offset the rising costs through a favourable product mix and high average selling prices, with the company’s record growth in revenue from services acting as a buffer.

However, Cook noted that a shortfall in global iPhone revenues came due to supply constraints on advanced processor chips.