In what could be seen as a very strategic move from Apple, their CEO is coming to India on his maiden trip and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 21st, where it is expected that Cook will share his investments plan for India.
Apple has been witnessing global slowdown and declining volumes in China, which is the company’s second largest market is ringing alrm bells for the mobile major. Apple clearly wants to tap the ever growing India’s smartphone market and Recently, Apple’s EMS player, Foxconn has announced that they will be setting up a $10 billion dollar unit in Maharashtra to manufacture iPhones in the country.
Cook’s is quite serious about tapping the ever growing Indian market and this can be seen by the statement he made about the company’s outlook on India at Apple’s quarterly results late last month.
“It is already the third largest smartphone market in the world… But I view India as where China was may be seven to ten years ago (and) from that point of view, and I think there’s a really great opportunity there,” Cook had said as he announced a 56 per cent growth in iPhone sales in India in the quarter that ended March 2016. China region sales for the company – estimated at around a quarter of its volumes – went down by 11 per cent in the same period.
By Atanu Kumar Das
