“Tuesday’s deal with Iran paves the way for fresh foreign investment and the reopening of a big consumer market—in particular, for U.S. companies that have been all but barred from the country for decades,” Benoît Faucon and Sarah Kent report for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple Inc. has been in touch with potential Iranian distributors, according to people familiar with the matter,” Faucon and Kent report. “Iran’s nearly 80 million residents — 60% of whom are under 30—already have an affinity for Western brands, especially American ones. Internet penetration is 53% across the population, and that rises to 77% in Tehran, according to government data. About 11 million Iranians have mobile Internet access.”
“Many of the country’s senior businesspeople, or their parents, were educated in the U.S. and still prize American engineering. Many also remember the American automobiles their parents or grandparents drove before the revolution,” Faucon and Kent report. “Western pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food imports continued to trickle in legally under sanctions, though U.S. banking controls have kept a lid on volumes. That could ease the re-entry for some brands, if the deal proves lasting.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the JCPOA goes as planned, Apple would be most likely to go the reseller route, instead of opening its own Apple Retail Stores to eliminate to risk of the deal falling apart and, as per the terms, snapping back to sanctions.