Our guest today is Neil Shah, vice president of research, and co-founder, at Counterpoint Research, who advises businesses about their mobile, telecom, semiconductors, and IoT strategies. In this episode, Neil offers his insights into Apple’s manufacturing strategy and the iPhone maker’s growing share in India.

Notes:

(00:40) Introduction to The Daily Tech Conversation

(00:52) Our guest today — Neil Shah, VP of research, and co-founder of Counterpoint Research

(01:42) Thoughts on Apple’s plan to make iPhone 13 in India as well

(03:44) Reasons for Apple to ramp up manufacturing in India through its biggest contract partners

(06:09) On Apple’s market share in India over the last couple of years

(08:11) A snapshot history of Apple’s manufacturing steps in India over the last four years

(10:29) Apple has emerged as the second-biggest exporter of smartphones from India

(11:11) But phones assembled in India still constitute a very small proportion of Apple’s overall production — almost entirely in China

(12:59) Apple’s strategy so far in the Indian market

(16:09) More on the Indian market share

(18:30) Some qualitative guidance on Apple’s fiscal Q2 performance

(20:44) On Apple’s services push

(22:55) iPhone subscription plans in the US

(26:27) Broader smartphone trends

(30:30) Apple’s strategy versus Xiaomi and Samsung in India

(33:58) Apple’s gains globally over the last two years, versus Android

More about Neil Shah

https://www.counterpointresearch.com/author/neil/

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds