Apple Inc next week is to launch its first online store in India, the Silicon Valley giant said yesterday, hoping to cash in on the country’s festive season and grow its tiny share of the booming market.
The firm is a small player in India, where sales of its smartphones lag those of South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co, with the iPhone maker pricing itself exclusively at the luxury end of the market.
Its renewed push into India comes as Asia’s third-largest economy has hit a record slump due to a months-long COVID-19 lockdown.
Photo: AP
India’s busiest shopping season usually begins next month, with stores offering steep discounts and freebies to customers looking to splurge on big-ticket items as they celebrate popular Hindu festivals, including Dussehra and Diwali.
Apple’s online store, which is to open for business on Wednesday next week, would offer “a range of affordability options,” including discounts on Macs, iPads and tech accessories for students, the company said in a news release.
Shoppers could buy AirPods, iPads and Apple Pencils engraved in English, Hindi and a range of other Indian languages.
Apple currently sells through third-party retailers in India, including Amazon, and the country is seen as a huge potential market for the firm due to its giant 1.3 billion population and relatively low number of smartphone owners.
The company has only a 2 percent share of the Indian market, industry estimates show.
An application to open Apple Stores in India in 2016 was reportedly rebuffed because of a rule stating that foreign retailers must source 30 percent of their products locally.
The Indian government has since relaxed the rules, giving companies up to eight years to meet the sourcing requirements, as part of a push to attract foreign investment and create jobs.
Some of its smartphones, including the iPhone 11, are assembled at facilities operated by Taiwanese manufacturers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Wistron Corp (緯創) in the southern Indian cities of Chennai and Bangalore.
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