by Dan Moren
Demonetization bumped iPhone sales in India
The Indian government’s demonetization scheme, which rendered 500 and 1000 rupee notes invalid, actually may have helped Apple, according to The Economic Times:
iPhone sales shot up in India in the three days immediately following demonetisation as consumers rushed to buy these devices with their phasedout high-denomination notes and stores booked sales through back-dated receipts. As per trade estimates, over 1 lakh [100,000] iPhones were sold in these three days, which is around three-fourth of this handset’s average monthly sales.
Obviously, if you don’t want to deposit your cash in the bank—at which point you’ll have to pay taxes on it—what’s the next best option? Fungible goods. So gold and iPhones were apparently flying off the shelves as the best bang for your no-longer-legal-tender buck. It’s probably not repeatable, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple’s India results up next quarter, and down the following.