Fuelled by first time buyers, India emerging as a “huge opportunity” for Apple: Global CEO Tim Cook

New Delhi: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday called India a “huge opportunity” for growth as the company clocked revenue records across iPhones, MacBook, iPads and services, broadly led by first time buyers.


The praise for India, however, came at a time when sales in Greater China jumped 38% year-on-year to $25.5 billion, despite rising competition from local players and regulatory scrutiny.


The company, which closed its fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended December 27, 2025) with a 16% growth in its global quarterly revenue at $144 billion, said that India has emerged as a bright spot once again with a “strong” double-digit surge.


Responding to questions at an analyst call on performance in the Indian market during the quarter, Cook said, “We did set a quarterly revenue record during the December quarter, and to go a little further down, we set quarterly revenue records on iPhone and Mac and iPad, and an all-time revenue record on Services. So it was a terrific quarter in India.”


Cook said that India is shaping up strongly for the company, even as its market share is still at “modest” levels. “We really like what we see there. It’s the second-largest smartphone market in the world and the fourth largest PC market. And we still have, despite very nice growth history, we have modest share there, and so we think there’s a huge opportunity for us there, and we could not be more excited about it.”


He said that first-time buyers were a big part of the company’s numbers, indicating growing acceptance of the premium brand with the masses. “The other thing that I would point out is that the majority of customers that are buying iPhone and Mac and iPad and Watch are all new to that product and so it speaks very well to opportunity there.”


The Apple CEO said that India’s revenue growth is in line with the healthy trajectory it is witnessing across some of the world’s other large markets. “We set all-time revenue records in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and rest of Asia Pacific, and grew in the vast majority of markets we track. We continued to gain momentum in emerging markets, which includes India, where we saw strong double-digit revenue growth.”


He also said expansion of retail in India will continue and it will open a second store in Mumbai, which will be its sixth company-owned outlet. “We were excited to open our fifth store in India in December and have plans to open another store in Mumbai soon.”


Apple’s CFO Kevan Parekh added that the number of people with Apple’s products is also witnessing a double-digit growth. “We’re seeing strong double digit growth in the install base in India as well, which is really encouraging.”



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