Is India Ready to Love Apple?

The need for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to make a big impact in emerging markets has been much discussed over the past few days as the company’s stock price tries to factor in its growth expectations. China and Brazil have been touted as two markets that hold a lot of growth potential, and analysts have recommended the launch of a cheaper iPhone to attract the countries’ cost-conscious consumers.

One market that has not been talked about as much, but clearly holds similarly high potential is India. And according to a local report, the country may be ready to embrace Apple more than ever. According to the Economic Times, sales of Apple devices, with iPhones leading the way, rose by between 300 and 400 percent in the past quarter. According to IDC, Samsung had a 46 percent share of the Indian market at the end of September, with Apple nowhere in the top five with a tiny 1.4 percent share of sales. However, the company had recently entered into distribution partnerships with Redington and Ingram Micro (NYSE:IM), and the new measures seemed to have paid off.

According to Fortune, at the Asymconf in California last week, IBM’s (NYSE:IBM) Paul Brody said that he just came back from India where mobile carriers were activating iPhones at the rate of 2,000 per day. There’s more…