Bullish On India, Tim Cook To Unveil Apple Retail Stores In Mumbai, Delhi

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – As Apple firms up its plans to put India on its global manufacturing and retail map, the company’s CEO Tim Cook will be in India next week to inaugurate Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores in Mumbai and Delhi.

Cook will inaugurate Apple’s own branded retail stores — at Jio World Drive Mall in Mumbai and at Select City Walk mall in Saket, Delhi — that will be the first for the tech giant which has doubled down on its India growth plans.

Apple set another all-time revenue record for the India market in the quarter that ended December 31, 2022.

In the analysts’ call after posting its quarterly results, Cook said, “India is a hugely exciting market for us and a major focus. “We brought the online store there in 2020. We will soon bring Apple Retail there,” Cook had announced.

“I’m very bullish in India,” he added.

According to the India Cellular and Electronics Association, Apple’s ‘Make in India’ smartphone now constitutes 50 per cent of total exports.

Reports surfaced earlier this year that Cook-led Apple will quickly shift some of its China manufacturing to India and Vietnam in the next 2-3 years. India is likely to produce 45-50 per cent of Apple’s iPhones by 2027, at par with China, where 80-85 per cent of iPhones were produced in 2022, according to estimates.

India accounted for 10-15 per cent of iPhones’ overall production capacity at the end of 2022.

Apple became the first smartphone player in India to have exported $1 billion worth iPhones in the month of December.

It currently manufactures iPhones 12, 13, 14 and 14 Plus in the country.

For Indian customers, having the iconic Apple retail stores will be an experience that they have wanted for long time now.