On Tuesday, Apple inaugurated its first retail store in India, highlighting the US tech giant’s growing focus on the South Asian nation as a crucial sales market and alternative manufacturing base to China.
Apple CEO Tim Cook personally opened the doors to greet visitors as employees applauded.
Hundreds of iPhone fans lined around the store in a luxury shopping complex in Mumbai’s financial district, some of them overnight.
The California-based company is banking big on the country of 1.4 billion people, which has the world’s second-highest number of smartphone users after China, with the opening of a second store in the capital Delhi on Thursday.
The world’s most valuable corporation is also growing its manufacturing footprint in India as it strives to diversify its supply chain away from a reliance on neighboring China.
In a statement issued on Monday, Apple dubbed the stores a “major expansion” of its presence in India.
“We’re excited to build on our longstanding history,” Cook said in the statement.
Apple launched its online store in India in 2020, but had not opened an official physical shop until now due to previous investment rules, since relaxed, requiring foreign retailers to source 30 percent of raw materials locally, and pandemic delays.
Sales and marketing executive Purav Mehta, 30, camped overnight outside the store ahead of the opening, bringing with him his still-unopened 2013 iPod Touch.
“We’ve been looking forward to it… for a long time we’ve been waiting for this,” he told AFP.
Stationery dealer Madhav Mimani, 27, travelled about 900 kilometres (560 miles) from Rajasthan for the event.
“I think with Apple manufacturing in India, the prices are going to go down because it’s local manufacturing, which makes the iPhones affordable,” he said.
“It also increases chances of the Indians buying iPhones made in India because of the sentimental value.”
There are about 600 million smartphone users in India, with Android devices dominating the price-sensitive market.
According to Canalys, Chinese smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO, and Realme had a combined market share of 66 percent in 2022, while Samsung had a 19 percent share.
Apple’s iPhones compete in the premium part of the market, with a 4% share last year.
