Tim Cook is ‘particularly keen’ on India as Apple sets December quarter record in the country

AppleCEO Tim Cook said he is “particularly keen on India” where the company set a revenue record for the December quarter, even as global iPhone sales saw a slight decline.

“India set a December quarter record… The iPhone was the top selling model in India for the quarter,” Cook said during the first quarter earnings call.

The iPhone maker’s growth in India contrasts with the 11.1% year-on-year decline in net sales in China—its third-largest market by sales—in the December quarter.

Cook, who referred to China as “the most competitive market in the world,” noted that over half of the decline that Apple experienced there was driven by a change in channel inventory from the beginning to the end of the quarter.

“Part of the reason for that is that our sales were a bit higher than we forecasted them to be toward the end of the quarter. And so we ended a little leaner than we had expected to,” the Apple chief said.

Meanwhile, as Apple reduces its reliance on China for manufacturing, India is becoming a key manufacturing hub for the iPhone maker. Apple now produces its flagship iPhones and accessories in India through partners in the country.

“If you look at the manufacturing we do there (in India), we do manufacturing both for the domestic market, and we export. Our business needs a certain economies of scale for it to make sense to manufacture in (the) country,” Cook noted.

Global performance

The California-based company reported its “best quarter ever,” posting a revenue of $124.3 billion—up 3.9% year-over-year—in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (Q1 FY25), which ended on December 28, 2024.

Apple expects total revenue in the March quarter (Q2 FY25) to grow in the “low to mid-single digits” year-over-year, despite foreign exchange headwinds, which are expected to negatively impact revenue by about 2.5 percentage points year-over-year, according to Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh.

The iPhone maker’s bottom line surged 7.1% YoY to $36.3 billion in Q1 FY25.

While Apple’s flagship smartphones have driven the company’s sales, its services segment has been steadily growing and becoming an increasingly important source of revenue.

Following a surge in the previous quarter after two consecutive quarters of decline, global iPhone sales dropped 0.8% YoY to $69.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025, from $69.7 billion in the year ago period.

However, higher Mac and iPad sales offset the slight decline in iPhone sales in the December quarter, driving overall product revenue.

Mac products generated $8.9 billion in revenue, up 15.5% YoY. According to Parekh, Mac’s installed base reached an all-time high, with Apple witnessing a double-digit growth for both upgraders and new customers of the Mac.

“The Mac was driven by the very strong uptake on our new products during the quarter and the continued success of the MacBook Air,” Cook said.

“We are incredibly pleased with both the Mac and the iPad for the quarter,” he added.

iPad sales also shot up during the quarter, touching $8.1 billion, up 15.1% YoY, driven by strong interest for Apple’s latest products.

While sales for wearables, home, and accessories declined slightly, the overall sales of Apple products in the December quarter reached $97.9 billion, up 1.6% YoY.

In service revenue, Apple set an all-time revenue record of $26.3 billion for the December quarter, growing 13.9% from a year ago, Cook highlighted.

“Services continues to see strong momentum, and the growth of our installed base of active devices gives us great opportunities for the future. We also see increased customer engagement with our services offerings,” noted Parekh.

Apple Intelligence

In September last year, the tech giant launched its latest flagship smartphones, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, alongside iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus powered by Apple Intelligence—the company’s very own brand of artificial intelligence.

Later in 2024, Apple expanded its product line-up with Apple Intelligence, with new launches, including a new iMac, featuring the M4 chip; an all-new Mac mini powered by the M4 and new M4 Pro chips; a new MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips, which has two new chips—M4 Pro and M4 Max—along with M4. All these products will have access to Apple Intelligence.

There is also support for a range of older devices: iPad Pro, iPad Air, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini (all featuring M1 chips or newer), Mac Studio with M1 Max or later, Mac Pro with M2 Ultra, alongside iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

“We did see that the markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those where Apple Intelligence was not available,” Cook pointed out.

He added that, in April, the company is bringing Apple Intelligence into more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese, as well as localised English, to Singapore and India.