“After spending $1 billion to buy long-term access to the Chinese consumer market, Apple must be wondering how much a retail presence in India will cost,” Tim Culpan writes for Blooomberg.
“The U.S. company wants to open its own stores in the country. Doing so would allow Apple to better promote iPhones, and control the sales and service experience amid a flood of cheaper alternatives. Indian law requires such single-brand stores to procure at least 30 percent of a product’s components locally,” Culpan writes. “Companies with cutting-edge technology can get a waiver, but India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board has decided that Apple doesn’t meet that benchmark, Bloomberg‘s Siddhartha Singh and Saritha Rai reported Tuesday.”
“The size of the check Apple needs to write would therefore, in theory, be equal to the amount of money India expects to keep locally,” Culpan writes. “If Finance Minister Arun Jaitley decides to uphold the ban, Apple has one final option. By signing a franchise agreement with a local Indian retailer, the company could get its shop fronts without the foreign investment. The business model would look a lot like McDonald’s…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The check has already been written, so let’s see what happens as that fact percolates throughout the India government as India considers Apple Retail Stores.
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