Apple has sought special approval from India’s government to open a store in the country without a local partner. This was announced at the tech giant’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook told investors at the meeting that he didn’t think Apple would be a “good partner”.
“We like to do things our way. We needed to get approval from the government to go in there ourselves. I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us,” he said.
India is the second-largest smartphone market in the world, and in 2018, it changed its laws that prevented foreign brands from opening single-brand stores in the country.
According to a Counterpoint report, iPhone shipments in India increased by 6 percent in 2019. Apple also reported double-digit growth in India during the last quarter of 2019. Its focus on the Indian market improved after experiencing significant growth in the market.
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According to a Bloomberg report, the Indian government is also planning to offer subsidised loans to smartphone manufacturers. Experts view this as an attempt to motivate suppliers of Apple and Samsung to open factories in India.
Apple to open its physical stores in 2021
Back in August 2019, when Apple announced plans to launch its physical retail store along with its online stores, Tim Cook said:
“We appreciate the support and hard work by Prime Minister Modi and his team to make this possible and we look forward to one day welcoming customers to India’s first Apple retail store. We love our customers in India and we’re eager to serve them online and in-store with the same experience and care that Apple customers around the world enjoy”.
At the moment, Apple sells over 30 percent of its products in India online via third-party e-commerce platforms like Amazon India, Flipkart, and Paytm Mall.
The physical stores will, however, launch in 2021 while the online store will launch later in 2020.
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