KOLKATA:

Apple India's revenue and net profit fell for the first time in FY19 on the back of slowing iPhone sales last fiscal due to a weakening rupee warranting a price hike and higher import duties because of small local assembling operations here, analysts said.The company's revenue from operation fell 19% to Rs 10,538.3 crore while profit plunged more than 70% to Rs 262.3 crore, latest regulatory filings made to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) showed.“Following the global trend, Apple India's revenue has declined by 19% last fiscal in contrast to its gain of 19% in FY18,” said Mohit Yadav, founder of business intelligence platform Veratech Intelligence . “Understandably, the company is taking a conservative approach.The same has had an impact on employee benefits expense, too, which increased by 48% in FY19 as contrast to 66% in FY18.”An email sent to Apple India seeking comment on the financials did not elicit any response till Sunday press time.Apple’s iPhone sales in India last year were one of the worst with shipments declining for the first time, said market trackers.While Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research estimated Apple’s India iPhone shipments at about 1.6-1.7 million in 2018, CyberMedia Research pegged figure at about 2 million compared to as many as 3.2 million units sold in 2017.Analysts, however, expect both revenue and profit to revive in the current fiscal with the company growing sales of iPhones led by price cuts and lower pricing for the new models, unlike last year.Also, Apple is ploughing back savings from 20% import duties by expanding local assembly this fiscal to latest models such as iPhone XR.Counterpoint Research associate director Tarun Pathak said Apple India’s financials will turn around in FY20 due to attractive pricing of iPhone 11 , adding more premium phones to local assembling enabling 20% savings in taxes and buoyant demand for older yet pricier models like iPhone XR. “Apple has got all the ingredients right for a turnaround in India this fiscal,” Pathak said.At its April-June quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts that India bounced back during this period and the company returned to growth. The company had said growth was in strong double digits in India. Apple will announce its July-September global results this week.As per Counterpoint Research numbers, Apple made an entry into the top ten smartphone brands in India during the July-September quarter due to price cuts on iPhone XR model along with good channel demand for of its newly launched iPhone 11.