Dubai News
Indian Apple fans lining up to enter the iPhone manufacturer’s first Mumbai store on Tuesday got to see a special guest: Apple CEO Tim Cook, who flew to Mumbai to inaugurate the company’s first Indian retail outlet.
The store in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex is the culmination of a yearslong campaign by Apple and Cook to open a store in the South Asian country. Cook first announced plans for an Indian retail outlet in 2020, with a targeted opening date of 2021. Yet the COVID pandemic forced Apple to delay its plans.
Apple will open a second retail store in New Delhi on Thursday. The company has not expanded to a new country since 2018, when it opened an outlet in Bangkok.
The company’s efforts to open an Indian store were long hamstrung by regulations that required foreign retailers to source 30% of their goods locally. Cook personally lobbied Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back the regulations, which were lifted in 2019.
Hello, Mumbai! We can’t wait to welcome our customers to the new Apple BKC tomorrow. 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/9V5074OA8W
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 17, 2023
The company’s efforts to open an Indian store were long hamstrung by regulations that required foreign retailers to source 30% of their goods locally. Cook personally lobbied Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back the regulations, which were lifted in 2019.
Cook also met with Indian business leaders, like Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani and Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, during his time in Mumbai, according to local media. The Apple CEO is expected to meet Modi during his trip.
India vs. China
Apple is a small player in India’s smartphone market, only capturing 4% of the market with its premium iPhones. Instead, Indian consumers have turned to cheaper brands from local manufacturers, as well as Chinese and South Korean brands. (By comparison, Apple products made up 23.7% of smartphone sales in China in the fourth quarter of 2022, beating even local Chinese brands.)
Yet Apple’s India sales are growing, reaching $6 billion in the year ended in March, up from $4.1 billion a year earlier, reports Bloomberg. Still that figure is much smaller than the $75 billion Apple made in China during the last fiscal year.
India is also playing a larger role in Apple’s supply chain, after disruptions in China forced the company to warn that production of its newest iPhone would be lower than expected ahead of the 2022 holiday season.
Apple BKC services
As per the company, the store has display tables and avenues featuring the latest iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple TV lineups, as well as accessories like AirTag. Apple BKC also offers Apple Pickup, which makes it even easier for customers to place an order online and pick up products when it’s most convenient for them.
Apple BKC rent agreement
Apple has signed a lease for over 11 years with a 15 per cent rent escalation provision every three years with Jio World Mall. In addition to this, it is revealed that Apple will pay a minimum guarantee of Rs 42 lakh per month along with 2 per cent of the revenue share for three years. Post this, the tech giant will pay 2.5 per cent of the revenue share to the Mumbai mall.
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