Explained: The story behind the Apple versus Fortnite App Store battle

 Perhaps it’s a sign of our times that a potentially landmark battle with antitrust implications is shaping up over digital pickaxes. The court case involving Apple and Epic Games, the maker of the video game Fortnite, is the result of the gamemaker’s rebellion against rules and fees set by Apple in its role of gatekeeper for apps on its iPhones and iPads.

What’s the case about?

In August, Epic’s billionaire founder, Tim Sweeney, announced that he would no longer abide by Apple’s rule that all purchases of apps and items within apps designed for its iOS-based devices go through Apple’s payment system. After he activated Epic’s own payment system, Apple kicked Fortnite out of its app store. It also threatened to make it hard for developers using Epic’s tools to build games. In response, Epic sued in federal court; it also sued Google over the same issue Apple soon counter-sued.

What was Epic unhappy about?

That Apple and Google charge fees of up to 30 per cent to developers using their app stores. Consumers spent $50 billion worldwide on the App Store and Google Play in the first half of 2020, according to Sensor Tower estimates. That generated billions of dollars in highly profitable revenue for the companies. Some developers have derided this as an unfair and unwarranted tax, especially since it applies not just to the purchase of an app, but to anything bought within one.

Why does Apple do that?

Apple says that the App Store’s success is directly related to its iron-clad rules because it spends significant resources to police apps and maintain high quality standards. Its payment system ensures that consumers using the store have a seamless and easy experience and are protected from fraud. But a growing number of developers say Apple is simply finding excuses to maximise profits.

What are app makers doing?

Spotify, the music-streaming company, and Match Group, which runs dating services including Tinder, joined Epic and 10 other organisations to launch the Coalition for App Fairness to push Apple and Google, to change their app-store rules. The group launched a website outlining 10 “App Store Principles”, including one asserting that developers should not be required to exclusively use a particular app store or payment system. The group also criticised Apple’s 30 per cent cut for most paid apps and subscriptions.

First batch of Apple iPhone 12 to reach distributors on October 5: Report

 As the world awaits Apple to announce the launch date for its much-awaited and slightly-delayed iPhone 12, new reports have emerged that claim the first shipment of final units is going out to distributors on October 5.

According to Apple insider and tech analyst Jon Prosser, the shipment includes "iPhone 12 mini 5.4 (definitely the final marketing name) in 64GB/128GB/256GB and iPhone 12 6.1 (64GB/128GB/256GB)."

"Event on October 13, as I mentioned before," he said in a tweet late on Tuesday.

He claimed that the first iPhones to hit the stores are going to be the iPhone mini, which is the 5.4-inch version and the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max.

Apple is expected to launch four new devices under the iPhone 12 series.

All four models are expected to feature OLED displays and 5G support, as another analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed previously.

Apple is expected to launch its new iPhone 12 series in South Korea earlier than its usual schedule. According to officials at local telecom operators, they are preparing to sell the iPhone 12 in late October or early November, reports Yonhap news agency.

Foreign tech reviewers predicted that the iPhone 12 could be unveiled on October 13 and go on sale on October 23 in select markets.

Apple is expected to release four models of the iPhone 12 -- the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Mini, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Recently, it was revealed that the upcoming iPhone 12 could cost somewhere between $699 to $749 while the iPhone 12 Max could be priced around $799-849.

The Pro and Pro Max models are expected to be priced between $1,100 to $1,200.

--IANS

na/

 

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Three top Apple suppliers to commit $900 mn in India in next 5 yrs: Report

 Three of Apple Inc's top contract manufacturers plan to invest a total of almost $900 million in India in the next five years to tap into a new production-linked incentive plan, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron plan to make investments under the scheme, said the sources, who asked not to be named as the discussions are private.

India's new $6.65 billion production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme offers companies cash incentives on any increase in sales of locally-made smartphones over the next five years, compared with 2019-20 levels. The scheme aims to help transform India into an export manufacturing hub.

Foxconn has applied to invest about $542 million, while Wistron and Pegatron have committed to invest close to 13 billion rupees and Rs 12 billion, respectively, under the PLI plan, the sources said.

It is unclear whether all of the investment will be targeted at boosting manufacturing of Apple devices in India, but the sources and industry insiders said the vast majority would be focused on expanding iPhone manufacturing in the country.

Foxconn said that as a matter of policy it did not comment on specific operations or work for any customer. Apple, Wistron, Pegatron and India's technology ministry, which formulated the PLI scheme, did not respond to emails seeking comment.

While Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron make devices for companies other than Apple globally, Wistron's arm in India currently assembles only iPhones.

Wistron, which assembles roughly 200,000 second-generation iPhone SEs per month in India, plans to scale that up to 400,000 a month by the end of the year, one of the sources said, as it looks to cater to export demand for the device.

That plan is expected to create roughly 10,000 jobs, the source added.

Pegatron is yet to start Indian operations, but has been in talks with several states, with Tamil Nadu in the south emerging as a frontrunner for a planned plant to manufacture Apple devices, a third source said.

Foxconn, which also assembles devices for Xiaomi in India, already has enough capacity to meet Xiaomi's needs and is likely to use the PLI plan largely to boost iPhone production, a fourth source said.

The commitments would help Apple diversify its supply chain beyond China, which is locked in a trade war with the United States.

Apple started assembling in 2017 a low-cost iPhone model in India through Wistron's local unit in the tech hub of Bengaluru. It later ramped up production, with Foxconn beginning to assemble iPhones last year and Wistron widening operations.

"India is key to Apple's global ambitions as it expands beyond China," said Tarun Pathak, an associate director at tech researcher Counterpoint. "It offers a strategic market to them where skilled labour is cheaper as compared to other manufacturing destinations, the size of the internal market is huge and the export potential is enormous."

Local manufacturing helps Apple save costly duties levied on imports of fully-built phones and components in India, where the Cupertino, California-headquartered tech giant accounts for just 1% of smartphone shipments.

Apple is looking to change that. It launched its online store in India last week, and is building its first company-run retail store in the financial hub of Mumbai.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Apple Store Online goes live with trade-in option for iPhones, bank offers

 Apple Store Online is now live in India. The digital store is a one-stop portal where you can purchase Apple products and avail of services. Said to deliver the same experience that is available at Apple Store locations around the world, the online store offers the shopping assistance feature through Apple Online Specialists, trade-in for iPhone, custom-built Mac, AppleCare+ and free no-contact delivery. Moreover, the online store offers multiple financing options on products — equated monthly instalments through credit cards. Let’s take a look at the offers currently available on Apple Store Online:

Cashback offer from HDFC Bank

The Apple Store Online is running a limited time cashback offer in partnership with HDFC Bank wherein customers can avail a six per cent cashback on the purchase price of select Apple products. The cashback amount is capped at Rs 10,000 and it would be credited in bank account in five to seven days. To avail the cashback, the order cart value needs to be more than Rs 20,900.

According to the terms and conditions of the cashback offer, it is available only on HDFC Bank credit cards and credit cards EMI transactions. The cashback is limited to one order per cart. The offer is valid until October 16.

ALSO READ: Apple Store Online offers services beyond shopping

EMI and no-cost EMI option

Apple is offering EMI and no-cost EMI financing option on its products. The EMI financing option is available through credit cards issued by banks, including American Express, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, CitiBank, HDFC Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, J&K Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RBL Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India, and Yes Bank. There is a limited time no-cost EMI financing option available for HDFC Bank credit cards customers. Through no-cost EMI financing option, customers can avail no interest EMI for six months.

Apple Trade-in for iPhone

Through Apple Store Online, you can trade-in your existing smartphone for credit towards a new iPhone. You can trade your phone by answer a few questions regarding brand, model and condition. Basis the details, Apple provide a trade-in value and lower the price of the iPhone by adjusting the trade-in credit from the cart value.

Apple Store Online coming up on Sep 23, will offer services beyond shopping

 Apple on Friday announced that the American technology giant will launch its online store in India on September 23. Named ‘Apple Store Online’, the online shop will be a gateway for Indian consumers to access full range of Apple products and support services. According to Apple, the upcoming online store will provide customers with the same premium experience found in Apple store locations. Here are the services that Apple would offer through its online store in India:

Shopping assistance

From recently launched Apple Watch Series 6 to iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, the online store will feature Apple’s entire product portfolio. To ease the sale process, the online store will have Apple Specialists for shopping assistance, which are touted to help with anything -- custom-configuring any Mac to setting up new devices. Through shopping assistance feature, customers can seek advice, receive guidance, and learn about new products directly from Apple, both in English and Hindi languages.

Payment options

Apple Store Online will have multiple payment modes, including an option to pay though debit and credit cards. Other options will be credit card equated monthly instalment, RuPay, UPI, net banking and credit card on delivery.

ALSO READ: Apple to celebrate Diwali with 1st India online store on September 23

No-contact free delivery

Products purchased through Apple Store Online will be delivered for free and the company will ship all orders with no-contact delivery.

Trade in programme

For iPhones, the Apple Store Online will have a trade in option where you can exchange any eligible smartphone for credit towards a new iPhone.

ALSO READ: Apple Watch Series 6 with SpO2 sensor launched: Know India pricing and more

Custom build Mac

Through online store, Apple will let customers customise Mac configuration before processing the purchase order. Therefore, you can now add more memory, additional storage or an extra-powerful graphics card to build a Mac that suit your needs.

AppleCare+

AppleCare+ extends warranty on select products by up to 2 years for technical support and accidental damage cover. It is a service product, therefore, the coverage includes limited accidental damage coverage and does not include theft or loss of device. Moreover, AppleCare+ benefits are in addition to consumer’s right to a free-of-charge repair or replacement as per Apple’s standard warranty terms.

iPhone makers among biggest winners in India's $6.6 bn manufacturing plan

Apple Inc.’s major iPhone assemblers are among the companies expected to win approval to participate in a $6.6 billion stimulus program to bring manufacturing to India, according to people familiar with the matter, a potentially seismic shift as the world’s most valuable company diversifies beyond China.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Indian government is expected to approve a plan aimed at bringing $150 billion in mobile-phone production over the next five years, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Among the dozen phonemakers already cleared by a high-powered government committee are Apple’s primary supplier Foxconn Technology Group, which had submitted two applications, and peers Wistron Corp. and Pegatron Corp., the people said. The three companies make virtually every iPhone sold globally in sprawling factories currently located mainly in China.

Under the Production Linked Incentive program, or PLI as it’s called, manufacturing incentives will rise each year in an ongoing effort to entice the world’s biggest smartphone brands to make their products in India and export to the world. Besides the Apple contractors, Samsung Electronics Co. is the only other applicant for the five slots allotted to foreign companies. China’s largest phonemakers Huawei Technologies Co. and BBK Group, which manufactures brands like Oppo and Vivo, are conspicuous by their absence.

Amid rising trade and political tensions between the U.S. and China, India is betting that many global brands will be keen to reduce their dependence on China. If successful, the program could set in motion a shift in electronics manufacturing in the next five years.

“It’s a thoughtful move by the government aimed at wooing Apple to bring significant iPhone manufacturing to India because, when the iPhone maker shifts, an entire ecosystem follows,” said Hari Om Rai, chairman and founder of Lava International Ltd., India’s largest homegrown phonemaker. “The next five years will be dramatic, and India could become the new China in phone manufacturing.”

Lava, based in the New Delhi suburbs, is among the Indian phonemakers applying for manufacturing incentives, along with Karbonn Mobiles and Dixon Technologies India Ltd.

To receive the incentives, foreign manufacturers including Foxconn, Wistron and Samsung must commit to specific investment and production targets of devices that sell for at least 15,000 rupees ($200); Indian phonemakers will have no such restrictions. Last month, Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s minister for electronics and information technology, told reporters that Apple accounts for 37% and Samsung 22% of global sales revenue share from mobile phones. The incentive scheme would “increase their manufacturing base manifold in the country,” the ministry said in a statement.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

Pegatron, the second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn with a number of factories in China, said in July that it would set up a plant in India. Apple accounts for more than half of Pegatron’s business. If approved, Pegatron’s first India factory would be eligible for PLI, the people said.

In the next five years, India could attract an additional 10% of global handset production, Credit Suisse said in a recent note. And though the country is the world’s second-largest handset market with plenty of room for domestic sales growth, the government’s clear aim is to eventually become a global manufacturing colossus to rival China. Almost two-thirds of the stimulus program is targeted at the export market, the people said.

Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of India Cellular and Electronics Association, a trade group that represents leading phonemakers including Apple, Oppo and Xiaomi, said incoming handset makers will be accompanied by a host of smaller sub-assemblers and component makers, expanding the sector to seven times its current size in the next five or so years.

Coronavirus in China will cut iPhone production, Apple warns investors

AppleInc is warning investors that it won't meet its second-quarter financial guidance because the viral outbreak in China has cut production of iPhones.
The California-based company said Monday that all of its iPhone manufacturing facilities are outside Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, and all have been reopened. But the company said production is ramping up slowly.

The health and well-being of every person who helps make these products possible is our paramount priority, and we are working in close consultation with our suppliers and public health experts as this ramp continues, Apple said in a statement.
The death toll from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, was 1,770 as of Monday.
Apple says demand for iPhones is also down in China because many of Apple's 42 retail stores there are closed or operating with reduced hours. China is Apple's third largest retail market for iPhones, after the US and Europe.
Outside China, Apple said iPhone demand has been strong and is in line with the company's expectations.
On Jan. 28, Apple said it expected second quarter revenue between $63 billion and $67 billion. Apple's second quarter ends March 30.
Apple says the situation is evolving and it will provide more information on its next earnings call in April.

Apple planning to set up three physical outlets, an online store in India

Apple plans to set up up to three brick-and-mortar outlets in India besides an online store as the iPhone maker looks to further cement its position in one of the world's largest smartphone markets.
According to sources privy to the development, Apple has conveyed to the government its plans to set up physical as well as an online store, in line with its 'global experience' centres for Apple-branded products.

The move comes at a time when global smartphone manufacturers have reiterated their commitment to the Indian market and are looking to significantly ramp up their manufacturing capabilities in the country.
Apple, which works with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron in India, currently makes iPhone 6S and 7 here. One of the sources said Apple is looking at assembling more models in the country. Apple did not respond to a query on this issue.
In a major push to single-brand retail, the government last week had relaxed FDI norms, offering players more flexibility on local sourcing norms. It also did away a provision that required companies to mandatorily set up a brick-and-mortar store before getting into online retail trading.
Following the announcement, Apple had said it is keen on offering online and in-store experiences to Indian users that are at par with its global standards and aims to open its maiden retail store in India.
While the company has remained mum on the locations of its stores, reports suggest that Mumbai could become home to India's maiden Apple retail store.
India is looking to galvanise smartphone manufacturing and position itself as a global hub, dishing out incentives to sweeten the deal for international brands.
Amid growing concerns around US-China trade war, India now has an opportunity to woo companies that had so far concentrated their manufacturing operations in China.
The government has been engaged in a dialogue with key players to understand their concerns and requirements.
A recent report by industry body IAMAI had pointed out that India's mobile manufacturing lacks scale and depth despite its ambition to become global production hub, and the country needs to "think big" by manufacturing at scale, producing high-end phones, and incentivising exports.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) report had also noted that the global handsets market is worth about $467 billion (about Rs 32 lakh crore), and this demand is being met almost entirely by China, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.
The same report stated that in 2018-19, India exported mobile handsets worth $1.4 billion compared to $2.7 billion in 2012-13.
The production of mobile handsets had reached 225 million units in 2017-18 and India has the potential to manufacture one billion handsets annually, it had said.

Apple gets into 5G race; acquires Intel phone modem business for $1 billion

American technology company Apple has announced the acquisition of chip-maker Intel's smartphone modem business for $1 billion.
Approximately 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, along with intellectual property, equipment and leases, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker said in a statement late Thursday.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.
"This agreement enables us to focus on developing technology for the 5G network while retaining critical intellectual property and modem technology that our team has created," said Intel CEO Bob Swan.
"We're looking forward to putting our full effort into 5G where it most closely aligns with the needs of our global customer base, including network operators, telecommunications equipment manufacturers and cloud service providers," he added.
Apple will hold over 17,000 wireless technology patents, ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation.
Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet-of-things devices and autonomous vehicles.
Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies said that Apple is excited to have excellent engineers join its growing cellular technologies group.
"They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward," he added.
Apple has been working on its own chips for quite some time. Acquiring Intel's technology could help the iPhone maker accelerate its plans.
Apple may have paid chip-maker Qualcomm somewhere between $5 billion-$6 billion for an agreement to dismiss all ongoing litigations, including those with Apple's contract manufacturers.
Intel had been working on a chipset for the iPhone maker, with the chip expected to be part of iPhones by 2020.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

India may gain as Apple explores moving production capacity from China

Apple  Inc has asked its major suppliers to assess the cost implications of moving 15%-30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia as it prepares for a restructuring of its supply chain, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report on Wednesday.
Apple's request was a result of the extended Sino-US trade dispute, but a trade resolution will not lead to a change in the company's decision, Nikkei said

The iPhone maker has decided the risks of depending heavily on manufacturing in China are too great and even rising, it said.
Key iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron Corp , Wistron Corp, major MacBook maker Quanta Computer Inc, iPad maker Compal Electronics Inc , and AirPods makers Inventec Corp, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek have been asked to evaluate options outside of China, Nikkei reported.
The countries being considered include Mexico, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. India and Vietnam are among the favorites for smartphones, Nikkei said, citing sources who did not want to be identified as the discussions are private.
Last week, Foxconn said it had enough capacity outside China to meet Apple's demand in the American market if the company needed to adjust its production lines, as US
President Donald Trump threatened to slap further $300 billion tariffs on Chinese goods.
China is a key market for Apple as well as a major production center for its devices.
A group of more than 30 people from Apple's capital expense studies team have been negotiating production plans with suppliers and governments over monetary incentives that could be offered to lure Apple manufacturing, the report said.
A deadline has not been set for the suppliers to finalise their business proposals, Nikkei said, adding that it would take at least 18 months to begin production after choosing a location.
Apple and Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

US antitrust case: What lies ahead for Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon

The US government is sharpening its antitrust scrutiny of Big Tech. In a sign that formal inquiries could be forthcoming, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission last week divvied up antitrust oversight for Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. While the timing caught some by surprise, the companies have been preparing for this moment for a while, hiring lawyers and lobbyists and publicly making their case. History may be on their side: Corporate breakups are a significant, and rare, undertaking for the US government.
The last major breakup of a monopoly was AT&T in 1982. Microsoft was ordered split up by a federal judge in 2000 after the Justice Department sued the software company in 1998, a decision that was reversed on appeal.In the past few years, there has been a groundswell of calls to at least rein in, if not break up, technology companies that are seen by some as having become too big and powerful in many ways.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has made perhaps the most detailed case for breaking up and regulating the four companies, but the Massachusetts Democrat is not alone in her aggressive views on the industry. Any formal investigation will take a long time. Government scrutiny of Microsoft lasted years.
As all sides dig in, here’s a look at some of the issues the government could home in on as it builds its case, and some of the ways the companies might argue their way out.
APPLE
The Case: Though perhaps best known for the iPhone, Apple’s vulnerability is the App Store, which supports tools and games for mobile devices and increasingly holds the key to the company’s growth. Apple and Google control more than 95% of all mobile app spending by consumers in the US, meaning that most developers must work with them to reach millions of smartphone users.
Spotify Technology SA is among those that have long complained about the 30% cut Apple takes of each app, claiming it amounts to an effective tax on competitors. Some smaller developers sued Apple this week, claiming the App Store suppresses competition. The European Union is already preparing to look into the case and Warren, in her proposal, said the App Store should be separated from the rest of Apple because its own apps compete with those of outside developers.
Last month the Supreme Court ruled that a large antitrust case, regarding App Store pricing, could proceed.
The Defence: Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is adamant that Apple is “not a monopoly” in any way. He points to its share of the smartphone market in the U.S., which is only about 30% and is even lower on PCs. ''We don’t have a dominant position in any market,” he said in an interview Tuesday with CBS. Apple has long sought to distinguish itself from the rest of big tech, from providing tighter security on its hardware and software to highlighting that it doesn’t monetize users’ data. Regarding the App Store, Apple recently added a new section to its website to show the benefits it provides to developers, such as reaching a huge global audience and handling payment and identity details, thereby taking friction out of the sign-up process.
Apple, along with Google, has also pointed out its ability to filter out fake apps and malicious software, making its store more secure.
FACEBOOK
The Case: Facebook has received a barrage of government criticism over the past year due to the sheer amount of data it collects on some 2 billion users and its control over content posted on the platform. Digital advertising, where Facebook and Google together control about 60% of spending in the US, is also an area where regulators might seek to base a case. Warren and Representative David Cicilline, the Democratic chairman of the House’s antitrust panel, have suggested that Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp might need to be unwound. Chris Hughes, one of the company’s co-founders, recently wrote at length why he thought Facebook is a monopoly run by a chief executive officer whose “influence is staggering.”
The Defence: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he welcomes regulation, but that breaking up the company wouldn’t address legislators’ privacy and data concerns. In fact, Facebook argues that its size actually enables it to do the things that regulators want to see, such as better policing of content, which would be much harder if Instagram or WhatsApp were separate companies.
Furthermore, in an age where the government is concerned about the rise of China, Facebook argues that the US needs its big tech companies. Breaking up Facebook would simply clear the way for Chinese tech companies, which don’t share American values, to step in and dominate, Zuckerberg has said. As for digital advertising, Facebook notes that it doesn’t even lead the market.
EMarketer pegs its share at 22% of the U.S. market in 2019. Facebook’s $55 billion in advertising revenue last year was less than half of Google’s. And, other social media companies are growing in key demographics, like Snapchat, which said earlier this year that it now reaches 90% of 13- to 24-year-olds in the US.
GOOGLE
The Case: Google appears to be the company that’s facing the most serious antitrust scrutiny now, after the FTC closed a two-year investigation in 2013 without any action. The company has a large or a majority market share in several important industries: Search, digital advertising and mobile operating systems. And Google could face concerns similar to Apple for its own app store.
Google commands about 37% of the US digital ad market, according to EMarketer, where it sells much of the online real estate available to advertisers, such as search ads and spots that play before YouTube videos. In search, where Google has 90% of the market, opponents claim the company can manipulate rankings to favor its own listings. And Google’s Android smartphone operating system is by far the most popular in the world, with 85% of the market, outpacing Apple’s iOS with 14%, according to IDC.
The company has already gone several rounds of antitrust scrutiny with the European Union and has been forced to pay billions of dollars in three different cases, including a record $5 billion fine for the practice of tying its search and browser tools to Android. Google has also made many enemies among smaller businesses, ranging from media to advertising technology companies that are now assembling evidence to help the Justice Department, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The Defence: Google has well-defined arguments ready to push back, honed over years of doing battle with the EU and the FTC. To counter the claim of favortism in search, Google argues that it's only trying to surface the best information faster for users. Google is appealing the $1.7 billion EU fine for stifling competition in the online advertising market. Regulators’ demands for Android will force Google to change its business model and start charging customers for the software, rather than giving it to handset makers for free, the company claims. Google may also argue that the global nature of the internet means it doesn’t actually have the power that its critics say it does, pointing to companies such as Amazon and Tencent Holdings Ltd. The internet has low barriers to entry, and if someone builds a better search engine or advertising system, customers can easily switch over, the argument goes. Google likes to say that “competition is only one click away.’’
AMAZON
The Case: The antitrust debate about Amazon focuses on the retailing giant’s perceived dominance of e-commerce, where it has nearly 50% of U.S. online sales. Since it’s both a retailer and a marketplace for third-party sellers, Amazon has drawn scrutiny over whether it uses its clout and huge amount of sales data to give itself a leg up over smaller vendors – an issue the EU is already investigating. Warren has suggested that Amazon, like Apple, should be barred from competing with other players that sell on its marketplace. Regulators may also look into Amazon’s fulfillment practice, in which the company handles all aspects of fulfilling customer orders from shipping to packing and storing, according to Vox.
The problem is that Amazon often charges much lower fees than competing platforms. Amazon Prime could also be a target. While consumers may love the fact that they can get free shipping on a wide range of goods and services with the subscription program, the FTC has shown interest in the question of whether bundling these services allows Amazon to undercut competitors on price, according to Vox.
The Defence: Every time Amazon buys another company in another sector it sends a jolt of fear throughout the industry -- whether groceries or pharmaceuticals or logistics. But Amazon claims it actually only holds a small percentage of the total retail market in the US and faces formidable competition from the likes of Walmart Inc. The company, also a frequent target of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for its treatment of workers, also prides itself on being able to keep prices low for consumers.

Discounts and generous trade-ins: How Apple sparked iPhone revival

Apple Inc executives had a clear message for investors on Tuesday: Demand for iPhones has begun to recover from a bruising holiday period.
The Cupertino, California-based company reported iPhone sales of $31 billion in the fiscal second quarter, slightly better than analysts expected. Apple’s projection for revenue in the current period also topped Wall Street estimates, and could result in the first sales increase in three quarters.

Apple resorted to traditional tactics, such as discounts and generous trade-ins, to revive its iPhone prospects. That dents hardware profit margins, but creates a larger base of device owners to support an expanding roster of digital services. The stock rallied 5 percent in extended trading.
"IPhone pricing had gotten greedy in 2018 and it makes sense to trim prices in 2019," said Neil Mawston, executive director of the global wireless practice at Strategy Analytics Inc. "Apple has the world’s most valuable user base of premium smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. It has potentially a billion people it can sell services to."
During a conference call, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri explained how they stabilized iPhone demand, veering into the lexicon of used car salesmen on one occasion.
The company pushed its iPhone trade-in program in several regions, and offered higher trade-in values for older handsets
The executives mentioned discounts, likely referring to price cuts at third-party retailers in China
Apple introduced new financing offers for iPhone purchases
China recently cut its value-added tax, effectively lowering the price of iPhones
Improved trade dialog between the US and China boosted consumer confidence
Toward the end of last year, when it became clear that the latest iPhones weren’t selling as well as expected, the company launched an internal "fire drill" to encourage more people to upgrade.
The trade-in program led Apple to advertise lower iPhone prices on its homepage and on the windows of Apple Stores in many countries. Apple Retail technicians also suggested consumers buy new iPhones instead of fixing them. The strategy worked. Cook called the results of the program "striking" on Tuesday and said the company handled four times as many trade-ins in the March quarter than the same period a year ago.
Cook said Apple offered more than "the Blue Book" when people brought in older handsets to trade in. That refers to Kelley Blue Book, a publication that helps set the value of used cars.
Cook said customers are trading in various iPhone models, ranging from the iPhone 6 from 2014 to the iPhone 7 Plus from 2016, but not as many iPhone 8 units, which launched in 2017.
The CEO likened the trade-in offers to a subsidy, calling it a "way to offset the device cost itself." There’s a "reasonable number of people" who want to trade-in devices and then combine it with Apple’s monthly financing programs, he added.
The company has seen positive customer response to price cuts in emerging markets, Maestri said.
Services revenue grew 16 percent, year-over-year, in the fiscal second quarter. That was slower than some previous periods. Analysts expect growth to re-accelerate as Apple launches new offerings. It recently introduced an online news service for $9.99 a month. Other services coming this year include original video streaming and a mobile gaming subscription.
The executives noted the company has more than 390 million paid subscriptions, up 30 million from the previous quarter. If the company is going to continue to increase that number, it needs to keep expanding its device user base, and Cook seems to think he’s figured out how.

Apple cracks down on apps that fight iPhone addiction among children

They all tell a similar story: They ran apps that helped people limit the time they and their children spent on iPhones. Then Apple created its own screen-time tracker. And then Apple made staying in business very, very difficult.
Over the past year, Apple has removed or restricted at least 11 of the 17 most downloaded screen-time and parental-control apps, according to an analysis by The New York Times and Sensor Tower, an app-data firm. Apple has also clamped down on a number of lesser-known apps.

In some cases, Apple forced companies to remove features that allowed parents to control their children's devices or that blocked children's access to certain apps and adult content. In other cases, it simply pulled the apps from its App Store.
Some app makers with thousands of paying customers have shut down. Most others say their futures are in jeopardy.
"They yanked us out of the blue with no warning," said Amir Moussavian, chief executive of OurPact, the top parental-control iPhone app, with more than three million downloads. In February, Apple pulled the app, which accounted for 80 percent of OurPact's revenue, from its App Store. “They are systematically killing the industry," Moussavian said.
The screen-time app makers are the latest companies to suddenly find themselves both competing against Apple and at the mercy of the tech titan. By controlling the iPhone App Store, where companies find some of their most lucrative customers, Apple has unusual power over the fortunes of other corporations.
Executives at the app makers believe they are being targeted because their apps could hurt Apple's business. Apple's tools, they add, aren't as aggressive about limiting screen time and don't provide as many options.
“Their incentives aren't really aligned for helping people solve their problem," said Fred Stutzman, chief executive of Freedom, a screen-time app with more than 770,000 downloads before Apple removed it in August. "Can you really trust that Apple wants people to spend less time on their phones?”
Timothy D Cook, Apple's chief executive, said at a conference this month that Apple had added screen-time tools to help people monitor and manage their phone use. "We don't want people using their phones all the time," he said. "This has never been an objective for us."
On Thursday, two of the most popular parental-control apps, Kidslox and Qustodio, filed a complaint with the European Union's competition office. Kidslox said business had plummeted since Apple forced changes to its app that made it less useful than Apple's tool.
Apple also faces an antitrust complaint in Russia from Kaspersky Lab - a Russian cybersecurity firm that American security officials claim has ties to the Russian government - which said Apple had forced it to remove key features from its parental-control app. The company is exploring a similar complaint in Europe, a Kaspersky spokeswoman said.
"We treat all apps the same, including those that compete with our own services," said Tammy Levine, an Apple spokeswoman. "Our incentive is to have a vibrant app ecosystem that provides consumers access to as many quality apps as possible." She said the timing of Apple's moves were not related to its debut of similar tools.
Apple is facing other accusations that it is abusing its dominant position to lift itself and bury rivals - an issue that has become more important as the iPhone maker expands into new markets like television, news and gaming.
Spotify complained to European regulators last month that Apple used the App Store to give its Apple Music service an unfair advantage over Spotify's competing app. Dutch regulators announced this month that they would investigate whether Apple abused its control of the App Store.
In the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic candidate for president, recently suggested separating the App Store from Apple as part of her proposal to rein in the American tech giants.
An unhappy parent
In early 2018, two prominent Wall Street investors urged Apple to address concerns that people were becoming addicted to their smartphones. In June, the company announced plans for tools to help iPhone owners track and limit their and their children's phone use. It began offering the tools in September, tucked into the phone's settings menu.

iPhone prices to India: Apple's 5 ways to fuel earning but only one works

If it weren’t for that darn trade war, Apple Inc. might just have squeaked through. In the three years or so since it became clear that global smartphone sales were slowing, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has deployed five key strategies to maintain earnings growth. After Wednesday’s cut to the sales outlook, it’s clear that only one has unquestionably succeeded.
ALSO READ: Apple cuts revenue forecast citing fewer iPhone upgrades, low China sales
Higher iPhone prices
As unit sales slowed, Apple has kept revenue ticking up by boosting the iPhone’s average sales price. It hit a staggering $793 in the three months through September, up from $618 a year earlier. Unfortunately, that seems also to have made it particularly vulnerable to economic weakness, most obviously in China. Consumers with a perfectly serviceable iPhone 8 are less likely to want to spend as much as $1,449 on a top-of-the-range iPhone Xs Max.
Services
Apple’s services have been the brightest spot of the past few years, averaging 26 percent annual growth since 2014. But the $2.4 billion jump in revenue that the division enjoyed in the holiday quarter was nowhere near enough to offset the overall sales miss of as much as $9 billion. The offerings, which include music streaming, the App Store and iCloud, still represent less than a quarter of iPhone sales. And it’s become harder to make money from these in China, which has banned several products and hundreds of third party apps.
It’s also unclear whether Apple gets the same revenue from traffic acquisition payments in China that it does elsewhere. Alphabet Inc. pays Apple up to $9 billion a year to make Google the default search engine in the iPhone’s Safari web browser, but it doesn’t operate in China.

ALSO READ: Apple's Tim Cook faces toughest test yet navigating iPhone slowdown
India
Cook has long talked up India as Apple’s next great source of growth. Back in 2016, he told investors that it was “where China was maybe seven to 10 years ago.” On that basis, sales in India should be growing at 80 percent to 90 percent a year, as they did in China in 2011 and 2012. Yet revenue from the subcontinent was flat in the fourth fiscal quarter. Cook has struggled to convince Indian consumers to spend hundreds of dollars on older hardware when rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. and Xiaomi Corp. offer newer handsets for less money.
New technologies
Apple’s research and development spending has more than doubled since 2014. So far, it has little to show for it. The innovations added to the iPhone, such as Face ID and faster chips, are now failing to attract enough new customers. The Apple Watch, while improving, generates less than a tenth of the revenue of the iPhone, and the health and fitness ecosystem that was supposed to develop around it has yet to materialize in any significant way. Efforts to develop a self-driving car have faltered. Smart glasses remain the great new product hope, but it could be some time before that market is mature enough to ease the earnings burden on the iPhone.
Buybacks
First-quarter gross profit is set to decline for the first time in 15 years, based on the revised guidance. Yet Apple is still likely to increase earnings per share, not least because of its buyback program. The company’s vast cash pile has helped it return some $239 billion to shareholders through stock repurchases, in turn reducing the number of shares outstanding by almost 30 percent. That has turbocharged EPS expansion, which almost doubled in the same period.
Financially, Apple continues to be a well-managed company. It is generating returns for shareholders in spite of operational missteps. But once again, it’s fair to question Cook’s ability to steer Apple successfully out of the iPhone era.

Top-end Apple phones like iPhone X to be assembled in India in 2019: Report

Apple Inc will begin assembling its top-end iPhones in India through the local unit of Foxconn as early as 2019, the first time the Taiwanese contract manufacturer will have made the product in the country, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Importantly, Foxconn will be assembling the most expensive models, such as devices in the flagship iPhone X family, the source said, potentially taking Apple's business in India to a new level.
The work will take place at Foxconn's plant in Sriperumbudur town in Tamil Nadu, this source added.
Foxconn, which already makes phones for Xiaomi Corp, will invest Rs 25 billion ($356 million) to expand the plant, including investment in iPhone production, Tamil Nadu's Industries Minister M C Sampath told Reuters.
The investment may create as many as 25,000 jobs, he added.
The other source declined to be named as this person is not authorised to speak to the media. A third source confirmed Foxconn planned to assemble iPhones in India.
ALSO READ: It's been a rout for Apple in India: Why iPhones have failed to make impact
The Hindu newspaper first reported on December 24 that the Foxconn plant would begin manufacturing various models of the iPhone. Reuters is first to report the size of the investment and the kind of phones to be assembled.
Lower-end phones
Until now, Cupertino, California-based Apple has only assembled the lower-cost SE and 6S models in India through Wistron Corp's local unit in the Bengaluru technology hub.
Its sales in India have also been focused on lower-end phones - more than half of its sales volume is driven by models older than the iPhone 8, launched last year, according to technology research firm Counterpoint.
Apple launched the pricey iPhone X last year but has cut production of that phone, according to industry analysts, since it began selling the newer versions, iPhone XS and XR, globally this year.
Still, it could potentially get Foxconn to make the older iPhone X version in India where it sells cheaper models in a bid to get a bigger share of the world's fastest-growing major mobile phone market.
ALSO READ: Apple tightens belt as trouble rings in from dull iPhone demand and beyond
Full details of Apple's deal with Foxconn are not yet clear and could change.
It is not known if any of the iPhone assembly is being moved from existing Foxconn factories in China and elsewhere. It is also unclear whether the production will be confined to assembly or include any component production in India.
Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment for this story.
Foxconn said it does not comment on matters related to current or potential customers, or any of their products. It did not immediately respond to a request seeking confirmation that it was investing $356 million in Tamil Nadu.
Apple shocked investors last month with a lower-than-expected sales forecast for the Christmas quarter that jolted parts suppliers across the world.
Foxconn has previously expressed concern over demand for Apple's flagship devices. 

Apple braces for court fight over what's the fair price for an iPhone app

When iPhone users want to edit blemishes out of their selfies, identify stars and constellations or simply join the latest video game craze, they turn to Apple Inc's App Store, where any software application they buy also includes a 30 percent cut for Apple.
That commission is a key issue in a closely watched antitrust case that will reach the US Supreme Court on Monday.
The nine justices will hear arguments in Apple's bid to escape damages in a lawsuit accusing it of breaking federal antitrust laws by monopolising the market for iPhone apps and causing consumers to pay more than they should.
The justices will ultimately decide a broader question: Can consumers even sue for damages in an antitrust case like this one?
Apple, which is appealing a lower court decision that revived the proposed consumer class-action lawsuit, says no, citing a decades-old Supreme Court precedent. The Cupertino, California-based technology company said that siding with the iPhone users who filed the lawsuit would threaten the burgeoning field of e-commerce, which generates hundreds of billions of dollars annually in US retail sales.
The plaintiffs, as well as antitrust watchdog groups, said that if the justices close courthouse doors to those who buy consumer products, monopolistic conduct could expand unchecked.
"A lot of tech platforms will start making the argument that consumers don't have standing to bring antitrust suits against us," said Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director for the Open Markets Institute, a Washington-based antitrust advocacy group.
"Uber could say, we're just providing communication services to ride-sharing drivers," Vaheesan said, referring to the popular ride-sharing company. "If there's an antitrust issue, the drivers can bring a claim but passengers do not have standing."
The iPhone users accused Apple of violating federal antitrust law by monopolising the sale of paid apps, leading to inflated prices compared to if apps were available from other sources.
Though developers set the prices of their apps, Apple collects the payments from iPhone users, keeping a 30 percent commission on each purchase. One area of dispute in the case is whether app developers recoup the cost of that commission by passing it on to consumers. Developers earned more than $26 billion in 2017, a 30 percent increase over 2016, according to Apple.
The company sought to have the antitrust claims dismissed, saying the plaintiffs lacked the required legal standing to bring the lawsuit.
Apple has seized upon a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged instead of indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others. Part of the concern, the court said in that case, was to free judges from having to make complex calculations of damages.
Apple said it is acting only as the agent for app developers who sell the apps to consumers through the App Store. The company said allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be dangerous for the e-commerce industry, which increasingly relies on agent-based sales models. Apple cited companies like ticket site StubHub, Amazon's Marketplace and eBay.
Lawsuits against companies like these would multiply "and lead to the quagmire this court sought to avoid," Apple told the justices in a legal brief.
E-commerce reached $452 billion in U.S. retail sales in 2017, according to U.S. government estimates.
Apple is supported by President Donald Trump's administration. The plaintiffs are backed by the attorneys general of 30 states including California, Texas, Florida and New York.
The US Chamber of Commerce business group, backing Apple, said in a brief to the justices, "The increased risk and cost of litigation will chill innovation, discourage commerce, and hurt developers, retailers and consumers alike." The plaintiffs and some anti-monopoly groups disagree. They said that app developers would be unlikely to sue because they would not want to bite the hand that feeds them, leaving no one to challenge anti-competitive conduct.
Developers "cannot risk the possibility of Apple removing them from the App Store if they bring suit," the American Antitrust Institute advocacy group said in a brief.
Apple is "trying to make it harder for injured parties to assert their rights under federal antitrust law," said Mark Rifkin, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The claims against Apple date to 2011 when several iPhone buyers including lead plaintiff Robert Pepper of Chicago filed a class action lawsuit against Apple in federal court in Oakland, California. A judge initially threw out the suit, ruling that the consumers were not direct purchasers because the higher fees they paid were passed on to them by the developers.
The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals last year revived the lawsuit, deciding that Apple was a distributor that sold iPhone apps directly to consumers.

Apple, Amazon strike deal to boost sales in India, other key markets

Apple will begin selling its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch directly on Amazon’s websites in India and other international markets as part of a global deal struck by the two technology titans.
Amazon will delist the Apple and Beats products being sold by non-authorised resellers, paving the way for the Cupertino-based technology company to exert more control over the online sales channel for its devices.

“We’re working with Amazon to improve the experience for Apple customers on their site and we look forward to those customers having another great way to buy iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and more,” Apple said in a statement. In other international markets, Amazon might directly carry Apple products on its websites. However, in India, with law forbidding online marketplaces from carrying their own inventory, only Apple-authorised resellers will be allowed to sell iPads, iPhones and other products on Amazon.
Apple-authorised resellers in India include the likes of Reliance Digital, Chroma and Sangeetha, which are largely offline sellers and see themselves as rivals of Amazon. The only authorised online reseller that Apple has had so far in India is Infibeam. Industry watchers, however, said Amazon could easily circumvent the rule by making Cloudtail, an entity in which it owns 49 per cent, a certified reseller of Apple products.
Amazon India did not respond to queries sent by Business Standard.
Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, said the partnership could help Apple take on Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus, which has become one of the leading player in the premium smartphone market thanks to Amazon.
Moreover, for Amazon India, the deal with Apple could give it something to counter the partnership Flipkart has with Google to sell its Pixel devices. Shah added that nearly one-third of Apple’s sales in India come from the online channel, with Flipkart selling more iPhones than Amazon until now.
“With Amazon having to remove third-party sellers of the iPhone, prices of these devices could become more coherent both online and offline. This could put some pressure on Amazon, which is trying to grab market share from rivals by offering lower prices to customers,” said Shah.
Apple, however, in the past has said it will not control pricing of its devices. The issue had cropped up when offline retailers complained to Apple that online retailers were severely undercutting the prices of iPhones and other devices, leading to a massive drop in sales for them.
A quick search among Apple’s authorised resellers shows that Reliance Digital is selling the latest iPhone Xs for Rs 96,900, a discount of Rs 3,000. Imagine, another authorised reseller, has listed the device at its sticker price of Rs 99,900, the same price that the device is being sold on Amazon currently. The deal, which will kick in after the holiday season, in January, will give Apple more visibility among online buyers in India. This could serve as a much-needed boost for the iPhone in India, whose sales have halved in the quarter ended September, according to the data from Counterpoint.
ALSO READ: Apple finds bugs in some iPhone X and MacBook models, offers free repair
“Our business in India in Q4 was flat. Obviously, we would have liked to see huge growth,” Cook said in a call with analysts last week (Apple follows an Oct-Sep fiscal year). Analysts estimate that improved iPad and Mac sales in India helped the company post flat sales growth, even though the iPhone sales have been shrinking. However, they said it was imperative for Apple to remedy the issue, as India is expected to become one of the largest markets for premium smartphones in three-five years.
Tech rivals team up
71% of Apple’s sales in 2018, ended in September, were through indirect distribution channels like Amazon
In India, one-third of iPhone sales come from online channels
As of Jan 4, Amazon will rid its site of Apple products from third-party merchants not authorised by the Cupertino-based firm
With the latest deal, iPhone buyers will get the brand’s assurance when buying on Amazon
Source: Agencies

How Apple lost bite as India rang in profits for Chinese smartphone makers

Software engineer Samee Alam was ready to take the big leap and buy an iPhone in this week's Diwali festival sales, but at the last minute he opted for cheaper Chinese competitor OnePlus instead.
Alam, 27, spends hours on his phone watching shows, surfing and shopping, making him the perfect target for Apple Inc as it strives to raise sales among India's 1.3 billion consumers.

But in a country where the average per capita income is around $2,000 a year, even the cheapest of this year's new iPhones, the XR at 76,900 rupees ($1,058), costs twice as much as many of the alternatives.
Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research says that iPhone sales are falling as a result. From three million phones in 2017, sales may sink to two million this year, according to their estimate, the first decline in four years.
More than half of those sales will come from cheaper older models, and the lack of progress in India was among problems cited by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook when he gave a disappointing holiday outlook last week.
Even in the premium segment, smartphones that cost more than $400, Apple lagged Samsung and China's OnePlus in the third quarter.
"I have never used an iPhone and I was keen on getting my hands on one but it didn't make sense," says Alam, who works for one of the raft of firms to have invested in the southern city of Bengaluru, often called India's Silicon Valley.
"I look for storage, camera and processor in phones and cheaper alternatives like OnePlus are more value for the money.
The new iPhones cost almost 100,000 rupees - I can get three good phones for that price or even a decent gaming laptop." Solid Mac sales and the high unit price of iPhones meant Apple's total revenue of $2 billion in India last year was still double that of OnePlus, which only sells mobile phones. But Counterpoint's data says that gap will also shrink.
OnePlus' India head Vikas Agarwal told Reuters this week that 10-15 percent of new customers in recent months have been defectors from Apple, suggesting even some loyalists are opting out of upgrading their handsets.
HIGH IMPORT DUTIES
Apple's problems go beyond price.
The company, facing down a handful of regulatory headaches, lost some of its top executives in India at the start of this year.
An Apple spokesman said the departures had nothing to do with the company's performance, but people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the departures were likely linked to the company changing its distribution system. Apple has cut the number of distributors in the country to two from five.
The sources, who declined to be identified because they have business relationships with Apple, also said company veteran Michel Columb is still working on solidifying business relations since taking control of the Indian operation in December.
Apple declined to comment further.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has sought to drive electronics producers into manufacturing locally by steadily moving tariffs up the supply chain from simple phone cases to sophisticated chipsets and boards.
Along with local firms like Lava, global smartphone giants including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Oppo and Xiaomi Corp have responded aggressively, investing millions of dollars in plants around Bengaluru and Delhi tech hub Noida.
Apple is the only major player which does not manufacture phones in the country and it only assembles two low-cost older models through Wistron Corp in Bengaluru.
Industry experts say as a result the company still imports about 70-80 percent of its phones. That results in high import duties, which in turn make the phones expensive.
In the United States, the basic iPhone XR model costs $749 or roughly 54,400 rupees, only two thirds of its retail price in India. Beyond that, while U.S. phones are subsidized under deals with wireless carriers, Apple's phones in India are not.
"Apple doesn't have enough confidence ... in the Indian manufacturing system right now, to set up plants and move some of the manufacturing out of China," said analyst Navkendar Singh of tech consulting firm IDC.
"In the process they are losing around 15-20 percent of their tax incentive ... which they could have passed on to the consumer."
EMPTY STORES
Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is peak selling time for electronics in India, but the Apple-licensed store in one of Bengaluru's big shopping malls was deserted this past Saturday.
"Features of the emerging phones are very similar to an iPhone," says salesman Aejaz Ahmed, adding volumes have fallen in the past few months. "It is very difficult to make out the difference from a distance because they even look so alike." Sales staff at several stores in Bengaluru and nearby Chennai pointed to the launch this year of the latest OnePlus phone as a major problem for the U.S. phonemaker. At 37,999 rupees, the Chinese company's 6T is half the price of the XR.
The result, says Neil Shah, from Counterpoint, is that Apple's user base in India is set to decline about 10 percent to nine million users this year. That compares to an estimated 436 million Android users.
"If your user base is declining, you are losing grip on the market," he says. "The new customer base is not coming."

Apple posts flat growth in India in September quarter over weakening rupee

Apple is not growing in India at a pace its CEO Tim Cook would like it to. Cook, who has earlier called India a high-growth market with potential to match China in the next decade, admitted to analysts and investors on Thursday that the company’s growth in the second most populous nation remained flat in the quarter ended September.
Cook attributed Apple’s lacklustre performance in India and other emerging markets to weakening currencies, which forced the technology giant to raise prices of its devices in some markets. However, analysts say Apple’s growth woes in India are not limited to a weak rupee but are more systemic in nature.
ALSO READ: Apple's decision to stop reporting iPhone sales data worries investors
“Our business in India in Q4 was flat. Obviously, we would have liked to see huge growth,” Cook said in a call with analysts. “The emerging markets that we're seeing pressure in are Turkey, India, Brazil and Russia, where currencies have weakened over the recent period. In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices and those markets are not growing the way we would like to see.”
Apple’s fiscal year starts in October and ends in September, making the July-September period its fourth quarter.
Cook in the past has pointed out that Apple was witnessing growth in high double-digits in India. In May this year, he reassured investors that the country represented a huge opportunity for the company. Apple refrained from making any comments on its India business during its Q3 earnings call, around the time when sales of its iPhone began to sag here.
While the rupee has weakened significantly in the past few months, increasing the cost of iPhones, which are largely imported into India, analysts say Apple has not revised prices of its products. While Apple does charge a premium for its iPhones in India compared to the US, a fluctuation of just 2 per cent was seen when compared to last year.

ALSO READ: We've had productive talks with govt, expect to open stores in India: Apple
The launch of premium devices from OnePlus and Samsung in the second half of Apple’s reporting period added to Apple’s woes. Moreover, the company’s entry level line-up of devices, including the iPhone SE and iPhone 6, are over four years old, making them unappealing to customers who once preferred these devices.
Apple didn’t see any uptick in sales from its latest iPhone XS and XS Max in the fourth quarter as the devices were launched in October. But response to even these devices, the starting price for which is ~99,900, is said to be lukewarm, providing no respite to Apple from its falling India sales even in the current quarter.
“Apple has realised that India’s smartphone market has a very low average selling price (ASP) and for it to get to a point where they can cash in using scale is going to take at least four to five years. So I think they’ve realised they have to wait to tap into the potential of the India market,” said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research.
ALSO READ: Apple will no longer report how many iPhone, iPad, Mac it sells; stocks dip
According to Counterpoint, Apple India’s revenue from smartphones was down 30 per cent in the quarter ended September, as shipments of iPhones halved in comparison to the year-ago period.
Luca Maestri, chief financial officer at Apple, did call out the strong growth of revenues from the Mac line-up in the emerging markets, including India, in his opening remarks in the call with analysts. Additionally, he said, “We generated iPad growth in a number of key regions around the world, including Latin America, Europe, Japan, India and South Asia.”
The drop in shipments of iPhones in India has had a significant impact on Apple’s already insignificant market share in the smartphone segment. From controlling 2.2 per cent of the market in Q3 2017, Apple just cornered 1 per cent of India’s smartphone market in the July-September period in 2018, according to the Counterpoint data. The company’s revenue share in the market was also down to 5 per cent in the quarter from 8 per cent in the year-ago period.
Apple India report card
50%: Year-on-year decline in iPhone shipments to India in the quarter ended September
30%: Fall in revenue from iPhones in the same period
56%: The previous generation iPhone 8 and X’s contribution to Apple’s sales
1%: Apple's market share in the smartphone segment, down from 2.2% in the year-ago quarter

Meet these 15 people who are helping Apple CEO Tim Cook run the company

On Friday, Tim Cook will mark the seventh anniversary of his ascension as Apple Inc.’s seventh chief executive officer. At 57, he’s in his prime, and all signs point to a durable tenure. When Apple’s board named Cook CEO back in 2011, the directors signed him on for a decade with massive stock awards that finish vesting in the summer of 2021. (On his anniversary, Cook is set collect stock worth about $120 million thanks to a run-up in Apple shares.)
Cook is the face of Apple. And design supremo Jony Ive is arguably the next-most important executive. But more than 100 other folks collectively help run the world’s most valuable company.
Apple rarely discusses succession planning, and when asked about it at the company’s most recent shareholder meeting, Cook said “passing the baton” wisely is one of his most crucial responsibilities. He also said succession planning for all key executive roles has been on the agenda at every Apple board meeting in recent years, though he didn’t identify any potential candidates.

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If Cook were to leave his post in the near term, potential successors would include Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, whose profile has risen steadily inside and outside Apple, and marketing boss Phil Schiller.
Other skilled leaders include services head Eddy Cue, software leader Craig Federighi, top chip engineer Johny Srouji, hardware leader Dan Riccio, semi-retired car project chief Bob Mansfield and, of course, Ive. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, retail head Angela Ahrendts and General Counsel Kate Adams, a relative newcomer, all brought leadership experience from other companies.
Beneath them are dozens of vice presidents, and Bloomberg picked 15 who are crucial to the Apple of today and the company of tomorrow. Apple declined to comment.
Greg Joswiak | VP, Product Marketing
Joswiak—or Joz as he’s known at Apple—may be the most important executive not featured on the company’s executive profiles page. He’s become central to product launches and recently debuted a low-priced iPad for students. A couple of years ago, Joz got oversight of marketing for all Apple products, ranging from iPhones to iPads to the Apple TV, Apple Watch and applications.

ALSO READ: Apple patents futuristic AR windshield system that will support FaceTime
Joswiak helps dream up new products and is considered critical to the company’s success. He reports directly Schiller, and insiders believe he could eventually succeed his boss. Joswiak got his start at Apple decades ago running marketing for the PowerBook laptop, gaining more responsibility and eventually taking over iPod then iPhone and iOS marketing. “If there’s ever another major shakeup at Apple,” says someone familiar with the company, “he’s the guy to keep an eye on.”
Tim Twerdahl | VP, Apple TV Marketing
Twerdahl joined Apple in 2017 from Amazon, where he ran the Fire TV business. While Apple TV never became the hit Steve Jobs hoped it would, the set-top box is doing better. On the company’s last earnings call, Cook said the 4K version was enjoying double-digit growth. Twerdahl is in charge of turning the Apple TV product, along with the TV app pre-installed across Apple devices, into the ideal stage for Apple’s upcoming original content efforts. He reports to Joswiak.
Stan Ng | VP, Wearables Marketing
Ng has been at Apple for nearly 20 years, moving from a Mac marketing manager to more senior iPod and iPhone marketing roles before taking on responsibility for the Apple Watch. Ng used to appear in iPod promotional videos and talk to the press about the music player’s latest features. At Apple, marketing isn’t just about portraying a product in ads or figuring out what to call it; the marketing group helps envision new products, dream up new features and then tweaks them to be beloved by consumers. The Apple Watch, AirPods and other wearables that fall under Ng’s purview are just a side business but it’s one that helps sell iPhones and is the envy of other technology companies.
ALSO READ: What changed the tide for Apple in India and how it is planning for revival
Susan Prescott | VP, Apps Marketing
Prescott became one of the first female Apple executives to speak on stage at a product announcement when the Apple News app was launched in 2015. Today, she oversees marketing for Apple’s bevy of apps, and recently announced the new Mac Stocks, Voice Memos, Home, and News apps at the company’s 2018 software developer conference. While Apple generates most of its revenues from hardware and services, apps are key to gluing together the Apple ecosystem.
Sabih Khan | VP, Operations
Khan is the wingman to chief operating officer Williams (much as Williams was to Cook when the latter was COO). In recent years Khan has inherited more responsibility for global supply chain operations that churn out hundreds of millions of devices per year—tasks once handled by Williams. Khan runs day-to-day manufacturing of the iPhone, as well as other devices, and his team has gotten involved increasingly early in the design process. Besides Cook and Williams, he’s key to “keeping the trains running on time,” says someone familiar with his work.
Mike Fenger | VP, IPhone Sales
With over a billion units sold, it may seem like the iPhone can sell itself. But the responsibility of striking deals to actually sell the iPhone globally falls on the shoulders of Fenger, a sales executive who left Motorola for Apple in 2008. During his tenure at Apple, Fenger has also overseen key enterprise sales deals with General Electric Co. and Cisco Systems Inc.
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Isabel Ge Mahe | VP, China
Ge Mahe worked for years as an Apple software engineering executive until Cook handpicked her to run China last year. It’s a crucial role because China generated about 20 percent of Apple's sales last year, making it the company’s third most important market behind the Americas and Europe. After losing momentum there, Apple has tailored its offerings to Chinese consumers—including a gold iPhone and mobile payments—and is banking on strong services growth. One of Ge Mahe’s most difficult challenges: continuing Apple’s nascent comeback in China without running afoul of Beijing.
Doug Beck | VP, Americas and Northeast Asia
Beck reports directly to Tim Cook and makes sure products are selling into the right places and coordinates the deals that get Apple’s devices in stores and used at businesses in the Americas and Asian countries including Japan and South Korea. He’s been at Apple for almost a decade, gradually expanding his purview over sales efforts. He’s also a U.S. Navy Reserve Officer and served overseas.
Sebastien Marineau | VP, Software
The software engineering leadership is stacked with company vets, but BlackBerry transplant Marineau has risen quickly. Marineau joined Apple in 2014 and oversees key device software for the Camera and Photos apps and system security—two areas that are critical to his employer. Marineau’s almost two decades of experience got him into Federighi’s inner circle, and Marineau is increasingly the main representative for the developer-centric portions of Apple’s annual software conference.
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Jennifer Bailey | VP, Apple Pay
Bailey is a key Apple services executive. She oversaw the launch and development of Apple Pay in 2014 and continues to be its driving force in meetings with retailers and financial partners. So far, Apple Pay has amassed over 127 million active users, according to analysis from Loup Ventures, but its global penetration in retail outlets still has room to grow. If Apple is going to achieve its goal of turning services into a $50 billion per year business by 2021, it's going to need products like Apple Pay to continue to excel. Before booting up Apple Pay, she ran Apple’s online store, perhaps the company’s most important sales channel.
Peter Stern | VP, Services
Stern joined Apple a couple of years ago from Time Warner Cable. Earlier this year, as part of a small re-organization in Cue’s services division, Stern was given oversight of video, news, books, iCloud and advertising services. All of these products are critical to Apple’s transition into more of a services company in the coming years. Look for Stern to take on an even bigger role at Apple as it pushes further into original content and streaming video.
Richard Howarth | VP, Industrial Design
For most of his career at Apple, Howarth flew under the radar on the famous design team that dreams up the look of the company’s gadgets. He has been key to the development of each iPhone model and the original Apple Watch. Then in 2015, Howarth took on a more public role when Ive relinquished day-to-day design team management to focus on the development of the new Apple Park campus. During that time, Howarth oversaw the design of the iPhone X, one of Apple’s most important recent products. Ive returned full time to running the design team at the end of 2017, but were he to step away again, Howarth would be the obvious candidate to inherit the top design job.
Mike Rockwell | VP, AR/VR
A Dolby Labs veteran, Rockwell is in charge of augmented reality. It’s a big job because Cook is convinced AR will be bigger than virtual reality, which he believes isolates users. AR lays digital information over the real world, offering countless potential consumer and commercial applications—streaming basketball stats to fans during games, say, or sending instructions to mechanics repairing complicated equipment. Apple is working on AR glasses that Cook is banking on to replace the iPhone. If Rockwell pulls it off, he’ll be the star of Apple product announcements for years to come.
Greg Duffy | Special Projects Hardware
Like Rockwell, Duffy is working on an Apple moonshot. Previously CEO of camera hardware company Dropcam and an executive at Alphabet Inc.’s Nest unit, Duffy joined Apple a couple of years ago to form a secretive hardware team filled with satellite experts. Last year, he poached Google’s top two satellite imagery executives, suggesting his new hardware team is working on an initiative that potentially could include satellites that take images for Apple maps. On his Twitter profile, Duffy simply says, “working on something new!”
John Ternus | VP, Hardware Engineering
Ternus has recently become a public face of Apple’s Mac hardware efforts, announcing new versions of its iMac desktop and MacBook Pro laptops at last year’s developers conference. He’s also been the executive explaining Apple’s renewed focus on professional Mac users, who had been feeling increasingly ignored by the company. In addition to overseeing development of new Macs, he also leads development of the iPad and key accessories like the AirPods. The prior head of iPad hardware engineering, Dan Riccio, is now the senior vice president leading all Apple hardware efforts. Ternus could be one of the executives eventually in line for the top hardware job.