Apple iPhone 5c 8GB variant will hit stores in India early June this year, based on various sources online.
Said plastic-cased iPhone variant was initially launched in China, UK, Australia, Germany and France sometime in March and brought out to other markets since then such as Austria, Belgium Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. It is soon to hit the shelves, too, in the US.
Reports of its impending launch in India came in the midst of speculations that Apple has plans to retract its iPhone 4 2010 model from said market, to think that it was only re-launched in January this year.
India is among the countries to get the cheapest new generation iPhone 5c, research reveals, which might be pegged between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 so as to compete and grab its share within that market dominated by staunch rival Samsung Electronics and Sony. It is said to showcase a buyback scheme that would cut off about Rs 2,000 to make it even cheaper over the 16GB variant which also has a buyback scheme.
The company expects that the iPhone 5c 8GB model will drive the volume sales as retailers disclosed that Apple's sales of smartphones declined by about 10 to 15 percent from March to April because of a slowing market. The move is seen to boost the company's average selling price (ASP) said to have fallen deep in the last quarter. Apple is seen aggressively pursuing the Indian market for the last few months with such buyback offers.
In the second quarter earnings call this year, Tim Cook mentioned that the company's aggressive moves to grab the Indian market showed positive results.
"The iPhone also continued to perform exceptionally well in many developing markets. In Greater China, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland and Turkey. iPhone sales grew by strong double-digits year-over-year, and in India and Vietnam sales more than doubled," Cook said during an earnings conference call.
Based on a CyberMedia Research report, Apple's share in the volume of smartphone market in India was low from January to March 2014. Leading the market during that period was Samsung with 38.9 percent, Micromax at 19.1 percent, Karbonn at 6.9 percent, Lava at 6.1 percent, Nokia at 5.3 percent and Apple at merely 2.4 percent.
Apple's iPhone 5c 8GB unit is most likely to hit the stores in other emerging smartphone markets as well aside from India, which is considered the third largest smartphone market worldwide.
