“Apple Inc. has finalized a short list of locations for its first retail store in India, according to people familiar with the plans, as the company redoubles its efforts in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market,” Saritha Rai reports for Bloomberg. “The iPhone giant has zeroed in on several upscale sites in Mumbai, and plans to make a final decision in the next few weeks, said the people, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. The vetted spots are comparable to iconic Apple locations on Fifth Avenue in New York, Regent Street in London or the Champs-Elysees in Paris, they said.”
“Apple has been prohibited from opening its own stores in the country because it doesn’t meet local sourcing requirements, but it’s shifting manufacturing into India and is in talks with the government about its retail expansion,” Rai reports. “Manufacturing in India will also allow the company to sidestep 20 percent tariffs on imported phones, making its devices more competitive.”
Rai reports, “The increase in local operations should expedite approval for a company-owned store when a new government takes over in India at the end of May or early June, said the people.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s been a long, difficult slog, so far, but it looks like things are finally about to improve for Apple in India.
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The store will be crowded on opening day for the free T-shirts but that’s about it. If Apple sells a handful of products they should consider themselves lucky. India is the land of Android smartphones and the ratio is probably like 1000 Android smartphones for every one iPhone (well, something like that). I’d heard the iPhone has about a 1% market share in India. Absolutely no hope for Apple in India. Considering the number of theoretical potential customers, it’s a huge loss for Apple.
It’s hard to sell premium smartphones to people who don’t even have bathrooms. People in India need bathrooms more than an Apple Store. It’s the reality.
It’s about half the people in India that should have bathrooms but don’t – they literally take a dump wherever they are. Not because of need, but because they don’t want them. The government is trying to educate that having one in the house is not foul and disgusting, but that idea is completely foreign to many outside (and inside) the major cities. It’s a fascinating story of public health education. https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/10/08/why-many-indians-cant-stand-to-use-the-toilet/
Much as educating folks about the advantages/security of the iPhone over Android. Not much different from breaking into the market controlled by Blackberry in 2007…