KOLKATA: Apple has broken with tradition and revived the production of iPhone 4 just for India, Indonesia and Brazil, said three senior executives with direct knowledge of the company's plan.The maker of iPads and MacBooks is betting the lower price point will help it wrest volumes from Samsung's Grand and S4 Mini, and recoup market share that has slumped, largely because it didn't have phones that were cheap enough.This is the first time that Apple has resumed the production of a discontinued phone. The company prides itself on pushing the design and technology envelope with every release and progressively stops the sale of older models. Apple's Foxconn vendor in China has restarted production of the iPhone 4 just for India and the other two markets, according to the people cited above.The move underscores the rising importance of the Indian market, where the American technology giant lost share and growth slowed in the last quarter.Apple phased out iPhone 4 in October last year from all markets, including India, with the launch of its latest models - the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.The company's India management managed to convince Apple that an entry-level model at the Rs 20,000 price point was essential to combat market leader Samsung and for expanding sales.

IPHONE 4 HAD BEEN A HIT IN INDIA

The iPhone team in India is led by Sanjay Kaul, who used to be with BlackBerry India. The iPhone 4 had been the biggest seller for Apple in India due to its attractive price point. The model is regaining traction, said Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO of The Mobile Store, India's largest cellphone retailer."It would now require some promotion from Apple and can potentially become one of our top-selling models like before," he said.An email sent to Apple three days ago did not elicit any response.Fresh iPhone 4 stocks, which have reached retail stores in the past 10 days, bear a December 2013 manufacturing date. Trade partners have been informed that new arrivals, reaching next week, would have been manufactured in January. The iPhone 4 production capacity could not be ascertained, but trade estimates put the number of phones that came to India in the first phase at 50,000-60,000.While iPhone 5S has been a success, its starting price of Rs 53,500 means it can't be a volume driver, apart from which it was plagued by supply issues at the time of its November launch. The iPhone 5C model, with a lower specification but not appreciably cheaper, has failed to garner significant sales in India. With iPhone 4S selling at Rs 26,500 under exchange, Apple felt the need to relaunch iPhone 4 late last month at Rs 22,900, which is now down to around Rs 20,000.The Rs 15,000-20,000 price band contributes around 8% to the total smartphone market in India, according to Tarun Pathak, telecom analyst at market tracker CMR. It's the least competitive but also growing at the fastest pace, he said."Hence, it makes sense for Apple to lock these buyers in its ecosystem, expand its market share and reach even beyond the metro cities," he said. Apple has realised that to be successful in some price-sensitive and high-stakes markets such as India, Brazil and Indonesia, it needs a mid-level product that entry-level smartphone users can upgrade to, a senior partner said. "iPhone 4 is here to stay and will be critical for Apple," he said, requesting anonymity.The resumption of iPhone 4 production is a sign that the India team is being taken seriously by CEO Tim Cook and the rest of the company's leadership, said another senior executive with one of Apple's leading local trade partners. India is too large and important a market to ignore, so when Apple's current portfolio of products did not succeed as expected, it needed to do something to stay relevant, said Jessica Kwee, analyst at Singapore-based market tracker Canalys."Apple did promotions on its iPhone 4 in India, which had relatively good success, and I suspect Apple is hoping to repeat that level of success to gain more market share," she said. Apple had earlier run buyback and cashback programmes for iPhone 4, which brought the price down below Rs 20,000.Canalys estimates that Apple had around 2% market share in the Indian smartphone market in the October-December quarter, far behind market leader Samsung, which had a 32% share, followed by Micromax at 21%. The firm estimates Apple sold about 250,000 iPhones across models in India in the last quarter. At its height, in the October-December 2012 quarter, Apple India's volume market share touched 5% while its value market share was 15% and the brand had become the second-largest smartphone maker in India by revenue.Since then, Cook has acknowledged India as one of Apple's fastest-growing markets in conference calls with analysts. However, Cook and the Apple management skipped mentioning India's performance in the October-December 2013 quarter call last week, with the company having lost much ground in the country.