[simonh]

Apple's market share in India is about 2% while in China it's about 7 percent. Apple's profit margin is generally about 30%.

The import tax in India is now 20%. Lets suppose Apple could increase market share in India to match that in China by reducing prices by the 20% tax, and compare that to keeping the 20% as extra profit but not increasing market share.

2% market share on 50% profit margin (existing 30% margin plus tax margin of 20%) sounds pretty good. However 30% profits on 7% market share yields more than double the overall profits.

Finally, all the arguments you make for charging more apply equally well anywhere in the world. So why doesn't Apple charge India prices everywhere in the world already? A simple argument that increased profit margin always beats higher sales implies that the perfect price point is infinity. At some point this strategy must yield diminishing returns.

[glogla]

> Finally, all the arguments you make for charging more apply equally well anywhere in the world. So why doesn't Apple charge India prices everywhere in the world already?

They kind of do, except they're slowly easing into it. First iPhone was 499 USD for the base model. iPhone X was 999 USD for the base model.

So over 10 years, they slowly raised their prices 100 %.