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How many iPhones were sold in India in 2022?

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Great quesiton - I would like to start with few claifications

  • Which iPhones are we considering?
    • New iPhones only 
    • Old or second hand iPhones only
    • Both

I will go with New iPhones selling only

  • Which version are we considering in all sales
    • Latest released version only
    • All versions 

I will go with All versions!

I would like start from total populaiton to narrow down to a guesstimate. 

  • Total population in India - 1500 Mn
  • % Age group buying mobiles in-large (20-60) - 60% = 900Mn 
  • To buy iPhone even with loan I would like to consider annual income >3LPA in India atleast, thus, % of people with annual income > 3LPA = 10% = 90Mn
  • Not everyone would like to have iPhone, few folks are android or apple fan, thus, % people who like iPhone (>than market penetration of apple) = 30% = 27Mn
    • Note - above includes someone who would like iPhone but not have it. 
  • Now out of above, lets divide the personas in category
  • Exisitng iPhone users who want to change to latest phone
    (Hardcore fans)
    Completely new iPhone buyers
    (New fans)
    Don't want to change phone this year
    (Neutral fans)
    10% = ~3Mn30% = ~8Mn60% = ~16Mn

    Thus, ~11Mn iPhones were sold in total. 

 

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How many iPhones were sold in India in 2022?

Clarification Question:

Are we talking about any specific model like iphone 11 pro, Iphone 11 pro max etc.

Let’s say no, we want to calculate it for all the iphones models which were sold in 2022.

My formula to calculate the number of iphone in india would be → total phone * market penetration rate of iphone. 

Let’s assume that India has a population of 150 Cr=1500M

Total families=1500/4= 375M

Assuming that a family consists of 4 people and around 60% families live in village and rest lives in cities.

Total family in city= 150M 

Total family in village= 225M

Although in village area there could be some families where there are no phone but for making the process simpler I am assuming that every family in village has 1 phone.

Total phones in villages= 225M

 

Assuming that in city 80% people comes in middle class and 20% comes in rich segment where in the middle class every family has 2 phones while in rich segment everyone has a phone.

Middle class Phones= 120M*2=240M

Rich class Phones= 30M*4=120M

 

Total Phones = 225M+240M+120M

                      = 585M

 

Recently I have read somewhere that in India Iphone penetration rate is around 4%.

Which takes Iphones numbers to=23.4M

Let’s make it to 24M for easier calculation.

 

If I am correct then iphone was launched in 2008 and till 2022 we had close to 24M iphones according to our calculation based on several assumption.

 

In recent years we have seen high growth in iphone sales so assuming that 30% of iphones are purchase in 2022.

 

Which takes numbers to  → 24M*30%= 7.2 M

 

Which seems a fair estimate.

 
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Clarifying Questions -
1.) New iphones or used iphones ? New iphones sold from retail and online combined
2.) Are we looking for the latest model no. or all models? All models combined.

Approach :
1. I would want to look at eligible population for smartphones?
2. How many can purchase a premium (50K INR +) phone?
3. How many purchase Iphone?
4. Avg years a iphone is used?
5. Quick sanity check

Solution ->

Total population of India -> 1.4 B

Out of which,
Below 15 years - 25%
Above 65 years -> 7 %
Children below 15 years usually will not have a phone or if they have a phone it will be a used phone.
Above 65 years people generally in india finds difficulty using the smartphone and would prefer a normal feature phone
so therefore I will not be considering both of these population group
Total eligible population group -> 68 % , It can be estimated to 70%
Eligible population -> 980M (70% of 1.4 B)

Out of the 980M,
10% will be from lower middle class and below income level (10-12k per month )
90 % will be from middle class, Upper middle class and Elite class
Total population eligible to buy premium phone - 882 M (90% of 980 M)

Now android: iphone phones in india is around 95:5
So no of iphones = 5% of 882M => 44.1 M

Iphones holding period is around 2-3 years. Let's take 2.5 years as an average.
Total iphone sold in the year = 44.1 /2.5 => 17.64 M

Quick Sanity check :
17.64M is around 1.3 % of total india population which seems fair.
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