Samsung, other iPhone knockoff peddlers lobby India to deny Apple’s request to sell used iPhones
“Apple Inc.’s latest attempt to crack the Indian smartphone market — by selling used phones — is meeting a wall of resistance,” Saritha Rai reports for Bloomberg. “The iPhone maker is seeking permission to become the first company allowed to import and sell used phones into the country, its second attempt in as many years. This time, the stakes are higher and a growing number of industry executives are fighting the move, warning government officials in private that it’ll open the floodgates to electronic waste, jeopardize local players, and make a farce of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ program to encourage local manufacturing.”
“India, as the world’s second largest mobile population, now represents a vast untapped opportunity for Apple just as China and the U.S. are slowing. Apple has publicly talked up its prospects in India and is on course to get the green light to open its first retail stores,” Rai reports. “Sensing the threat, the electronics manufacturing industry’s main representative body recently set up a lobbying arm that wrote directly to the government vehemently opposing Apple’s application. ‘Why even consider allowing import of used phones when import of other used goods such as cars are precluded by 300 percent duty levies?’ asked Ravinder Zutshi, chairman of the newly formed Mobile and Communications Council, which issued the letter.”
Rai reports, “The group’s members include the largest Indian phone brands: Micromax, Intex and Samsung.”
