“Apple Inc. is on course to win clearance to open its first retail stores in India, a person with knowledge of the matter said, as Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook seeks growth opportunities in a nation of 1.3 billion people,” Shruti Srivastava, Sunil Jagtiani, and Adi Narayan report for Bloomberg.
“The Indian government plans to push through Apple’s application to set up outlets, the person said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The company is resubmitting the request as it wasn’t in the right format, the person said, without giving a time-frame for final approval,” Srivastava, Jagtiani, and Narayan report. “Apple should qualify as a provider of cutting-edge technology, the person said. That would exempt the maker of iPhones and iPads from a rule forcing foreign businesses that retail a single brand in India to procure 30 percent of a product’s inputs locally. The company makes most of its devices in China.”
“Cook is hunting for fresh sources of growth after Apple last month forecast a sales decline for the first time in more than a decade. India now has the world’s fastest-growing major economy and about 220 million smartphone users,” Srivastava, Jagtiani, and Narayan report. “The challenge is that Indian consumers tend to prefer cheaper devices, leaving Apple with only about 2 percent of the market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’ll be good for Apple to control the full retail experience in India. Third party reseller can only offer so much. As always, expect Apple to continue selling premium products at premium prices to premium customers, regardless of the country in which they are operating.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Cook’s focus on India is insanely great – January 27, 2016
Apple seeks to open their first retail stores in India – January 21, 2016
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]