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>>but not sure that'll be possible (maybe I can borrow somebody's iPhone 8). My SE broke recently and I had to switch to iPhone 8 (They stopped selling SE by t

by arkj 7y ago

>>but not sure that'll be possible (maybe I can borrow somebody's iPhone 8). My SE broke recently and I had to switch to iPhone 8 (They stopped selling SE by then in India). I am able to manage but the form factor is no where as comfortable as the old SE. >> Price point is, admittedly, fantastic True for the developed nations but still on the higher side for India and South East Asia. If they could price it at 299 in India it will sell like hot cakes here but iPhone always misses the bus here in India.

rorykoehler 7y ago
My impression of India was that up could either easily afford the iphone or you were in the market for a budget phone. Not much middle market. Is that a correct assumption?
- arkj 7y ago
  That used to be correct in the past but things have changed here a lot. There is a growing population of the middle class. Nothing compared to what is there in the developed countries but nonetheless with some significant purchasing power. The mean income of the 90th percentile in India in 2004 was about 113 USD a month.[1] In the next 4 years the GDP has increased ~4x. [2] Now even if we assume (I don't have data from a study on this) the 90th percentile income doubled, it leaves them with 226 USD a month. I can say from personal experience that is a modest assumption. My own salary has increased 40x in this time period. If you consider my friends (a sample space of 30) whose salary I keep track, the average increase is around 20x. Now it is very reasonable (as the phone has become a very personal "being") to assume that someone in this income will spend a month of their salary on their phone. Now that is a market size of 120 million people and increasing. On a personal note, I run a operations company of ~40 people and their average salary is ~300 USD a month and everyone has a phone that costs more than 200USD. So I think it's reasonable to assume Apple is still missing the bus. [1] https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-files/02HDinIndia.pdf https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-fi... [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:IND:GBR:CAN&hl=en&dl=en https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
  - setman2 6y ago
    1 month of salary for a phone!? Wow, that sounds really expensive. I would think people would prefer to buy used phones from US/Europe instead at a discount.

by arkj 7y ago

rorykoehler 7y ago

My impression of India was that up could either easily afford the iphone or you were in the market for a budget phone. Not much middle market. Is that a correct assumption?

arkj 7y ago
That used to be correct in the past but things have changed here a lot. There is a growing population of the middle class. Nothing compared to what is there in the developed countries but nonetheless with some significant purchasing power. The mean income of the 90th percentile in India in 2004 was about 113 USD a month.[1] In the next 4 years the GDP has increased ~4x. [2] Now even if we assume (I don't have data from a study on this) the 90th percentile income doubled, it leaves them with 226 USD a month. I can say from personal experience that is a modest assumption. My own salary has increased 40x in this time period. If you consider my friends (a sample space of 30) whose salary I keep track, the average increase is around 20x. Now it is very reasonable (as the phone has become a very personal "being") to assume that someone in this income will spend a month of their salary on their phone. Now that is a market size of 120 million people and increasing. On a personal note, I run a operations company of ~40 people and their average salary is ~300 USD a month and everyone has a phone that costs more than 200USD. So I think it's reasonable to assume Apple is still missing the bus. [1] https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-files/02HDinIndia.pdf https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-fi... [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:IND:GBR:CAN&hl=en&dl=en https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
- setman2 6y ago
  1 month of salary for a phone!? Wow, that sounds really expensive. I would think people would prefer to buy used phones from US/Europe instead at a discount.