Apple to partner Vodafone, Airtel for iPhone 6s India launch

NEW DELHI: Apple is roping in top telcos Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India as vendor partners and pulling out all stops to make its iPhone 6s launch in India a blockbuster that will build on record sales of 1.7 million units in its last financial year in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.

For the first time, the Cupertinobased smartphone giant is forging partnerships with the telcos well in advance of the launch planned for October 16. Previously, operator plans came out months later.

Consumers can look forward to EMI schemes where they would need to pay only a small upfront amount and split the remainder up into 12 or 24 monthly instalments, or data-bundling offers with an upfront and equal monthly payments that will include a specified or even unlimited data, sources said. Analysts said consumers can also expect plans for device upgrades at the end of a 12-month cycle as there is a significant user base in India willing to shift to new iPhones year after year.



The tie-ups and offers, as well as the move to start selling in India much earlier that it usually does after a global launch, underscore the growing importance of India, which is set to overtake the US as the world’s second-largest smartphone market by 2017. Apple is looking to rapidly add to the 1.7 million units it sold in its financial year ended September 2015, according to data from Counterpoint Technology Market Research. This was a 55% jump from almost 1.1 million devices sold in its previous financial year. Apple didn’t comment on the data.

“Vodafone India will offer iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the most advanced iPhones ever, beginning on October 16,” a Vodafone India spokesperson said. Customers can register for the devices beginning October 9 on the company’s website.

India’s No. 2 telco didn’t disclose plan details. After registration, customers can choose to buy the phones through an ecommerce partner or at Vodafone’s retail outlets, sources added.

Vodafone had announced a tie-up in January this year, after the then Apple flagship iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were launched in October 2014. It had introduced tariff plans based on instalments for all its devices, starting from the iPhone 4s.

Bharti Airtel is working on a tie-up with Apple which would be finalised shortly, a company official said. The country’s largest telco, which is heavily advertising its 4G services, “would want to offer the 4G on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus,” the company official added, indicating that plans for its high-speed broadband services could be offered as part of a bundled package.

Analysts said Apple’s performance in India last year was by far its strongest yet. The smartphone market in India is currently dominated by Samsung Electronics and domestic vendors Micromax Informatics and Intex.

“It continues to be a highly aspirational smartphone for the growing urban smartphone users,” said Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research. “Strong momentum of Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which together generated over half of the total iPhones volumes, ensured a strong fiscal for Apple in India.” Apple, which launched the iPhone in 2007, ignored India for a long time and increased its focus on the market only over the past couple of years.

In the quarter ended June, iPhone sales grew 93% in the country to 500,000 handsets. The company has set target of selling 12 lakh devices in the October-December quarter this year, according to reports, and is lining up a marketing budget upwards of Rs 300 crore.