Apple`s iPhone sales are set to dip by around a quarter in India`s holiday season fourth quarter, putting them on course for the first full-year fall in four years, industry research firm Counterpoint said on Saturday. 

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The Cupertino, California company`s struggle to break through with India`s 1.3 billion consumers swung more sharply into focus this week after Apple blamed a disappointing set of sales forecasts on a handful of big emerging markets. 

Chief Executive Tim Cook said after publishing third quarter results that sales were flat in India in the fourth quarter, which includes a month-long festive season culminating this week in Diwali - a bumper period for electronics sales. 

Neil Shah, research director at HongKong-based Counterpoint Research, said on Saturday its channel checks pointed to numbers for the quarter in the range of 700,000 to 800,000 units, down from about a million a year ago.

For the whole of 2018, Apple was set to sell about  2 million phones - a drop of about a million from last year, he said, as Indians baulk at high prices for the devices, driven by trade tariffs and a weak rupee.

"Sales are set to drop for the first time in four years," Shah said. "If you look at Q3 - it was 900k last year and this (year) is almost 450k. "Iphones have gone costlier and the features and specs aren’t that compelling. The install base of android has grown vastly; the new customer base (for Apple) is not coming." 

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Cook on Thursday called the company`s problems in India "speed bumps along a very long journey" and most analysts say that the prestige of Apple`s brand should allow it to claim back lost ground as Indians` spending power continues to grow. Shah said that, while more than half the phones sold this year were older iPhone models, high selling prices meant Apple`s Indian revenue should still be flat or slightly higher than a year ago.