(MENAFN- Live Mint) Apple on Thursday said it set an all-time new revenue record in India, in line with its best quarterly worldwide sales to date of $102.5 billion in the September quarter. With this, Apple registered a 14th consecutive quarter in which it sold more iPhones in India than before-marking a steady rise in line with new retail outlets and expansion of manufacturing plans in India.

Demand for the iPhone 17 was a key driver of Apple's record results, chief executive Tim Cook said, adding that the company expects the momentum to continue into the December quarter.

“We grew in the vast majority of markets we track and had September quarter revenue records in dozens of markets... We also set a September quarter revenue record in emerging markets, and an all-time revenue record in India,” Cook said during Apple's post-earnings analyst call.

Cook also highlighted that part of the record quarter stemmed from Apple's two new retail outlets in India, opened earlier this year.

Also Read | India's $50 billion question: How to sell more smartphones? Demand surpasses supply

As Mint reported on 29 October, the iPhone 17 has become Apple's most-sold new smartphone ever -in India and globally-since its 19 September launch. However, Cook admitted that supply was struggling to keep up with demand.

“Sales of the iPhone 17 are strained on both sides of the ledger,” Cook said, hinting that both the entry-level and Pro models face shortages worldwide.

This aligns with feedback from Indian retailers, who told Mint last month that demand for the iPhone 17 series far outpaced supplies. A person aware of the matter had said then that Apple's shipments to India were“on track” and no supply chain bottlenecks had emerged at the time.

India bucks the smartphone slump

Every year, Apple's iPhone launch serves as a barometer for the global smartphone market-and an outlier in India. Over the past five years, while overall smartphone sales in India have remained below 2021 peaks, Apple's growth has accelerated exponentially.

Data from market tracker IDC India projects that Apple is on track to sell 15.5 million iPhones in India in 2025, up nearly 25% year-on-year. By contrast, overall smartphone shipments in India are expected to decline 4% over five years to 155 million units by December.

Apple's success stands out not only for its growth rate but also for its premium pricing-its iPhones sell at roughly three times the average price of a smartphone in India.

Signs of a strong September quarter were visible early on. Mint had reported that iPhone 17 preorders were up 10% year-on-year, and the first two weeks of sales were projected to rise nearly 20%.

Also Read | iPhone day frenzy: Why people still queue up outside Apple stores

A 28 October note by Bernstein confirmed this, saying iPhone 17 sales were 15% higher than last year, making it the most-sold new iPhone in its first month ever.

“Last year, the iPhone 16 saw mid-single-digit growth over the iPhone 15. This year, the iPhone 17 grew 18% year-on-year-showing rising revenue for Apple from India,” said Tarun Pathak, partner and director at Counterpoint.

“The surge is driven by a strong feature set and easy affordability plans, even across tier-III markets.”

Apple's India demand for iPhones is being driven by a surge in sales in markets beyond metro cities for older devices, and a rising drive for the latest generation iPhone in metro markets, analysts told Mint earlier this week.

A landmark financial year

The Cupertino giant, which follows an October–September financial cycle, said FY25 was its best year ever, with revenue touching $416 billion. On 28 October, Apple's market capitalization crossed $4 trillion, making it the third company after Nvidia and Microsoft to reach that milestone.

Even as Apple rode record demand, Cook flagged supply constraints across many iPhone 17 models as a near-term concern.

Also Read | Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max: Making the 'pro' tag count by going the extra mile

“We're today seeing supply constraints across many iPhone 17 modes. We're not predicting when the supply-demand will balance. We're working very hard to achieve that, as we want to get as many of these products out to customers as possible-but today we're not in a position to predict (when it will normalize),” he said.

Apple's chief financial officer Kevan Parekh added that US trade tariffs under President Donald Trump had a $1.4 billion impact on Apple's September quarter-up from $1.1 billion the previous quarter. Since April, tariffs have cost Apple over $2 billion in total.

Apple shares reacted favourably to its September quarter earnings, rising 2.2% in after-market hours at the time of publishing.

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