New Delhi, July 27 -- Apple's iPhone shipments into India fell for the first time in over four years as shortages of its latest iPhone 17 model squeezed supplies to retailers, interrupting one of its fastest-growing markets despite resilient consumer demand. A 17 July supply chain analysis by independent market research firm Counterpoint found that Apple's iPhone shipments in India fell 3% year-on-year in April-June, marking the first quarterly decline in over four years. Overall smartphone shipments to retail channels in India fell 10% during the quarter, pushing Apple out of the country's top five smartphone brands for the period. Vivo. Samsung, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi were the leaders. The setback comes as Apple is leaning increasingly on India as a growth market. On 30 April, Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief executive, had said India's performance had left him "over the moon excited." At the same time, the company has so far shielded the iPhone-its biggest revenue driver-from price increases, although it has warned that may not last. On 17 June, Cook had told The Wall Street Journal that an eventual price hike even for iPhones would be "unavoidable". Apple had hiked Mac and iPad models prices on 25 June but left iPhone unchanged. For India's retailers, iPhone supply issues, the prospect of higher prices and a weakening smartphone market threaten to dull one of the few bright spots in consumer electronics. Market research firms International Data Corp. (IDC) and Counterpoint project a 12-15% decline in India's overall smartphone sales in 2026, potentially making this the weakest year for the Rs.43-billion market since before the pandemic. Apple's supply constraints could also weigh on its India performance this year, even as demand for premium smartphones remains intact. "Apple is likely to see a decline in device shipments during the June quarter. For the full year, Apple's sales will likely either remain flat or see a marginal growth-far slower than the way Apple has grown over the past few years. More than any other reason, this is because the supply of the iPhone 17 is very restricted-and even when Apple accommodates the rise in memory chip costs, an immediate resolution is unlikely-perhaps until as long as 2028," said Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India. According to Singh, supplies of the iPhone 17 have remained constrained as memory chip suppliers renegotiate prices with Apple, slowing the company's ability to normalize shipments. "As chips get costlier, most vendors in the supply chain will renegotiate prices to ensure they make the most of the higher prices even as the market normalizes by 2028. This renegotiation will take its due course of time, and in the meantime restrict supplies of the iPhone 17," Singh added. Three retailers in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai that Mint spoke with, each of whom requested anonymity citing non-disclosure agreements with Apple, said availability of Apple's base iPhone 17 model remains limited and that they expect price revisions soon. "Typically, Apple reduces the price of the outgoing iPhone by about Rs.10,000 as they launch a new one. This year, we're expecting a considerably different iPhone 18 lineup-and no such price reductions that fuel additional demand in September," one of the retailers said. Queries emailed to Apple India went unanswered....