Apple set a new sales record in India with $10 billion in the last fiscal year (FY26). Now, the company is looking to break that record again in FY27, helped by what analysts describe as stronger initial demand for the new iPhone 18 series than for its predecessors.
Analysts and retailers have reported up to a 28% year-on-year uptick for the newly launched iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said it is too early to share definitive sales figures, but initial demand for the 18 Pro is outperforming the 17 Pro year-on-year. Counterpoint observed a 15–28% year-on-year demand uptick across 12 stores, ahead of festive-season promotions.
Resellers are driving volumes and catering to buyers across different locations. Industry experts also said the absence of a standard iPhone 18 this year has concentrated demand on the two Pro models.
Financing Fuels the Premium Push
Prabhu Ram, Head of the Industry Intelligence Group at CyberMedia Research, said structured retail financing acts as a key demand enabler, expanding Apple's total revenue and lifting blended average selling prices in India.
That matters because these are expensive phones. The iPhone 18 Pro starts at ₹1,64,900 and the Pro Max at ₹1,79,900. For many buyers, EMIs and financing schemes make that price manageable.
Why It Matters: Growth Without Volume
Apple's momentum stands out because India's overall smartphone market has stopped growing. Counterpoint estimated India would log its fourth straight year at around 152 million units, with the October–December quarter of 2025 down 8–10% year-on-year despite the festive season. It also expects the market to slip about 2% in 2026, warning that rising memory prices could hurt demand in the sub-₹15,000 segment.
The growth is happening at the top. Smartphones priced above ₹30,000 grew 15% year-on-year in 2025 and made up a record 23% of total shipments, according to Counterpoint.
In other words, Indians are not buying more phones overall, but more of them are buying expensive ones. That shift works in Apple's favour.
Record Revenue, Not Market Leadership
There is an important distinction in Apple's India story. By volume, Vivo led India's smartphone market in 2025 with a 23% share, followed by Samsung at 15% and Xiaomi at 13%. Apple remained outside the top three by shipments despite its record year.
Apple's strength lies in value, not volume. It earns far more per phone than mass-market brands, which is how it can post record revenue without leading in units sold.
What Apple Says About the iPhone 18 Pro
According to Apple, the iPhone 18 Pro Max brings its most advanced Pro camera system, along with major gains in battery life and performance. Key features highlighted by the company include:
- A new 48MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, plus new Pro controls in the Camera app
- A smaller Dynamic Island
- The A20 Pro chip with a next-generation vapour chamber, which Apple says delivers the highest sustained performance in iPhone history
- What Apple calls the best-ever battery life on a Pro model, due to improved silicon and a larger battery
- iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI
"With iPhone 18 Pro, we've made advancements to the areas our users care about most: camera, performance, battery, and intelligence. And we didn't just make incremental improvements in these areas — we took huge leaps forward to create the best Pro iPhone we've ever made," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.
The Make in India Backdrop
The sales push comes as the Make in India initiative reshapes electronics manufacturing in the country. Apple's growing local production and its rising sales in India are increasingly part of the same story, with India now important to the company both as a manufacturing base and as a consumer market.
What Comes Next
Early demand is only the first signal. The real test for Apple's FY27 record will come through the festive season, when discounts and financing offers typically peak, and in whether Pro demand holds once the launch rush settles.
With inputs from IANS.
