Try as it might, Apple (AAPL -0.22%) has simply been unable to crack the Indian smartphone market.
That's just fine for right now, as the Indian smartphone market remains a drop in the overall smartphone bucket. For example, in the second quarter of this year, the Indian smartphone market tallied 9.3 million shipments. And although it's growing like gangbusters, this is still a fraction of the 31 million iPhones Apple sold or the 236 million smartphones shipped globally during the same period.
India rising
However, as Apple is acutely aware, the Indian smartphone market is taking off like a rocket. According to research firm IDC, India's smartphone market will be the third largest in the world by 2017.
It's facts like this that have Apple doubling down on this growth market. Apple recently agreed to allow Reliance Communications, the third largest telecom player in India, to try to sell its iPhones at subsidized prices. And in another recent move, Apple also rolled out a new and aggressive iPhone trade-in program as well in India.
In the following video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner looks at Apple's new trade-in plan and what it could mean for Apple and its shareholders.
