Apple Inc will open a new store in India’s southern tech hub of Bangalore early next month, ramping up its push into a key growth market.
The Bangalore outfit, located in the posh Phoenix Mall of Asia, will open for customers on Sept 2, Apple said in a statement Thursday.
The Cupertino, California-headquartered company now runs two stores in India – a flagship shop in the country’s financial capital of Mumbai and a store in a southern Delhi mall. Chief executive officer Tim Cook attended the openings of each in 2023.
Apple’s iPhones account for 5% of India’s more than 700 million smartphone users, according to market research firm Counterpoint. Though India comprises a small portion of revenue compared with the US and China, the world’s most populous country offers huge room for growth, Cook has said. Apple’s revenue in India rose more than 30% to US$8bil (RM33.83bil) in the fiscal year to March 2024, with the bulk of those sales coming from iPhones.
Over the years, Apple has stepped up efforts to win more customers in India, where its iPhones, iPad and MacBook laptops are pricey status symbols that remain unaffordable for many. Those efforts include tie-ups with banks for interest-free installment purchase plans, student discounts and free engravings on some products.
Apple has been expanding iPhone manufacturing capacity in India, part of a shift away from China in the aftermath of harsh Covid shutdowns and Washington’s trade war with Beijing. India accounts for more than a fifth of all iPhones produced, with Apple now making all four models of its iPhone 17 series in the South Asian country ahead of next month’s debut. – Bloomberg
