Published on April 11th, 2016 | by Diogo Costa

Apple’s Tryst With Asia, One of Its Biggest Markets

Asia has played a crucial role in shaping Apple’s growth – so much so that the company had even gone on to break its traditional color scheme, consisting of dual light dark iPhones and iPads, silver Macbook and multicolor iPhone 5C, iMac and iPods. to comply with the quintessential lifestyle choices of Asians. It was way back in 2013 that Apple had introduced the razor sharp golden color to its scheme of things.

Though the reason behind the “opulent” color choice was never revealed, experts suggested that gold is one of the very favorite luxury colors of users in Japan, China, Thailand and Vietnam. Apple’s Tim Cook had, in 2013, actually spelt out that China was at the forefront of the company’s holistic marketing strategies.

Today, China remains one of the fastest growing markets of Apple (the company went, in 2015, on to report more than $16 billion in revenue in the first quarter of January). But there is more to know about Apple’s prospects in the Asian market: where does it stand today? Where exactly is it headed?

How exactly has Apple fared in Asia?

You may attribute it to the brilliant tech reviews garnered by the company in the Asian countries or its relentless efforts to highlight “”Asian” preferences in its products (remember gold was never a typical “American” favorite but definitely an Asian one!), Apple has not really found it difficult to gain desired traction in the Asian markets. China, for instance, is well poised to surpass Europe as the second largest market for the company.

Apple’s Asian aspirations are well matched by the countries’ promising GDP growth as well. Here is what the IMF World Economic Outlook for 2013 had to reveal regarding the GDP growth of several Asian countries:

Japan, with a population of 127.6 million, had registered 2% GDP growth;
China, with a population of 1.354 billion, had registered 7.8% GDP growth;
Philippines, with a population of 95.8 million, had registered 6.59% GDP growth;
India, with a population of 1.2 billion, had registered 4% GDP growth;
Vietnam, with a population of 93 million, had registered 5.02% GDP growth;
South Korea, with a population of 50 million, had registered 2.02% GDP growth;
Indonesia, with a population of 244.5 million, had registered 6.23% GDP growth;
Thailand, with a population of 64.4 million, had registered 6.44% GDP growth;
Malaysia, with a population of 29.5 million, had registered 5.61% GDP growth.

What is the company’s future in Asia? Will it become its largest market?

Records suggest that iPhone sales experienced a 100% growth in China in 2015. However, the company has recently gone on to wrap up some retail stores in China, which poses a concern regarding its growth prospects in Asia.

However, demographics still suggest that Asia is going to become the biggest market for the company by 2015/2016, thanks to the consistent growth rate and the fast emergence of the middle-class with great affinity towards high end consumer goods.

Tags: Apple, asia, market