Cook is a wizard at these sorts of predictions, he once said that China would save Apple’s bottom line and was rather upset when the Chinese lost interest in the shiny toys.

Cook’s answer is apparently to shift focus on another big market with even poorer people – India.

The logic is that there are rather a lot of people in India so it should be a big market to get yourself involved with. But Cook’s main problem is that the vast majority of the big population are very poor.

When the average salary is $83 a month, Indian people are not going to rush to spend $550 for a second hand iPhone – even when it means that they and their families are not going to eat.

We guess that Apple is hoping that the rich of India will buy them, or that the iPhone will be seen as a status symbol among the elite, however it is unclear if there will be enough numbers to make it all worthwhile.

Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a business summit in Washington at a time when Apple Inc is targeting the nascent Indian market as a revenue source after its sales in China slipped.

Apple has asked Indian government officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly work in the country. It is seeking permission to open its own retail stores in India where it now sells iPhones through resellers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Sunday highlighted the economic impact the company is having on India in a meeting with its prime minister as the iPhone maker seeks deeper access to the world's third-largest smartphone market behind the United States and China.

Cook reiterated that Apple had generated 740,000 jobs in India through its so-called "app economy" and Indian developers had created nearly 100,000 apps for the App Store, the person said.

Apple, working with contract manufacturer Winstron, began assembling the iPhone SE in Bengaluru last month. Indian authorities have offered Apple tax concessions for the work with the requirement that more local components be used over time.

Apple has not disclosed how much revenue it generates in India but said that sales grew by "strong double digits" there in the most recent quarter. Although that is not difficult. If you only started by selling 100 units selling 20 more will put you into double digits.

"We have a ton of energy going into the country on a number of fronts," Cook told analysts about Apple's efforts in India during the company's most recent earnings call. "We believe, particularly now that the 4G infrastructure is going in the country and it's continuing to be expanded, there is a huge opportunity for Apple there."