“Apple plans to go local with a vengeance, setting up small, neighbourhood shops in big cities and tier II markets, in a bid to get closer to potential buyers as it pushes ahead with an India-specific strategy aimed at trying to grab market share from dominant rival Samsung,” Writankar Mukherjee and Sagar Malviya report for The Economic Times. “”
“The shops will be set up by Apple distributors Redington and Ingram Micro besides existing trade partners and follows the revival of the iPhone 4 for sale in India and other emerging markets, which gave buyers who covet the brand the option of a phone that costs much less than latest models,” Mukherjee and Sagar Malviya report. “Apple has also directly approached some trade partners and retailers regarding the setting up of the neighbourhood stores.”
“Apple has informed distributors and trade partners in recent meetings that it is looking to set up exclusive 400-600 sq ft stores in neighbourhoods and some popular high-street locations. They will focus on mobility products such as iPhones and iPads, besides entry-level Mac computers and iPods, said three of Apple’s trade partners aware of the plans ,” Mukherjee and Sagar Malviya report. “Apple wants to set up these smaller stores in areas where people have high disposable incomes, there’s a strong penetration of smartphones and a large student population such as Pune, Vizag, Guwahati, Durgapur and Gangtok.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarah” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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