Apple India sells fewer than 1 million iPhones as sales execs leave

Apple is facing a major crisis in India.

According to a new Bloomberg report, the iPhone maker lost three pivotal sales executives in India and is currently struggling to grow its business in one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone markets.

The story suggests that Apple has sold fewer than 1 million iPhones in India during the first half of 2018, according to estimates from Counterpoint Research. If accurate, the estimates could create major problems for the world's most valuable company, which struggling to get a significant market share in developing countries like India and China.

Although India is one of the top three largest markets for smartphones (along with China and the United States), Apple has never really done well with the peninsula market due to a bevy of reasons, including its hefty iPhone price tag.

People in India have favored the more budget-friendly and high-quality smartphones like those produced by Samsung and Xiaomi. Although Apple even began assembling devices in India last year to lower the price tag (caused by the high foreign phone import tariffs), the company has not seen the gains it hoped to see there.

Only about 2.5 percent of smartphone users own iPhones there, according to estimates from Counterpoint Research, even though Apple CEO Tim Cook once hailed India as the next China, which is the company's second largest market. But Apple has a tense relationship with the Indian government.

Apple requested the Indian government last year for an "unprecedented" list of demands as part of its effort to lower costs to which the government rejected.

It is interesting to note, however, that Cook said in May that Apple's revenue from India for the first half of 2018 set record highs with a 20 percent growth. Let's see whether these revenue gains can carry Apple even with its drastically low sales and high drama. Apple is scheduled to report its earnings on July 31.