Apple Gets Closer to Opening Its Own Stores in India

If you’ve been waiting for Apple to open their own stores in India, your wait might have just gotten shorter, according to The Times of India:

On Tuesday, the iPhone and iPad maker made a presentation before a committee headed by industrial policy and promotion secretary Ramesh Abhishek where it made a case for use of the special provision. Sources told TOI that Apple was a fit case for relaxing the norms. “Their products certainly meet the requirement for waiving the local sourcing clause,” said a source, adding that a final decision will be announced in a few days.

There have been reports that the Indian government was considering relaxing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) since November last year, which were quickly followed by the government’s official announcement later that week. Following that, Apple had submitted their request for approval in January this year, but had to re-submit because “certain gaps [were] found in the initial proposal”.

After Tuesday’s presentation, I don’t think an announcement is all that far away.

April 23, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple is Hiring a Country Manager for App Store, Apple Music & iTunes Stores for India

I have a habit of keeping an eye on Apple’s job listings for India, hoping to come across something relevant that I can apply for. Over the last few months, it seems Apple has been on a hiring spree as I’ve seen all kinds of roles being listed, especially for Apple’s new tech development centre coming up in Hyderabad. All of the roles listed for Hyderabad are related to the Maps team, while other cities have had roles ranging from Sales, Marketing, PR, Business Strategy and even Big Data Frameworks.

Today, I came across a certain listing that really caught my attention. Apple is hiring a Country Manager, India — App Store, Apple Music, iTunes.

Apple is seeking a dynamic business leader with an impeccable track record in the entertainment and technology industries to drive its growth in India.

The role is interesting to me due to a lot of factors, most notably because the role is based in Dubai. Apple says,

The candidate will be responsible for the App Store, Apple Music and iTunes business, personnel and strategy implementation for this key market, as well as fortifying exceptional relations with the developer, music, movies, technology and media sectors in the region. The candidate will have strong and established relationships within the Indian technology, music, movies, entertainment and media industries in India, and will be able to lead Apple’s relationships with the Bollywood and regional movie studios, record labels and artistic talent communities.

The mandate is to deliver high revenue growth from premium content services as the Indian population connects to faster and cheaper data connections. He or she will also help to build a strategy for the distribution of Indian apps and content globally.

Apple’s recent hires have indicated that the company is pushing for a stronger focus towards the Indian market and this role only strengthens that belief.

Some other interesting roles Apple has listed in the past include Affordability Program Manager, Thermal Architect and Business Manager — Online Channel. As of this writing, Apple has 34 open positions listed on its job site.

March 2, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple Seeks Approval to Open Own Stores in India

ETtech this morning is reporting that Apple is seeking DIPP nod to open own stores in India.

Apple India has filed an application to open its own Apple branded stores in India with the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Confirming the development, DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant said, “We have just received Apple’s proposal. We are examining it.”

Back in November 2015, I had reported how Apple Stores in India may soon be possible after the Government of India had issued a press release announcing FDI reforms across 15 sectors, following which the DIPP had considered making exceptions in “certain high technology segments”.

Seems like Apple’s going for the kill.

January 20, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Relaxed rules may help Apple open its stores in India

Ruchika Chitravanshi reporting for the Economic Times:

The government may consider relaxing compulsory local sourcing conditions for high-end, hi-tech, single-brand retailers. Such a move might help persuade Apple, which is seeking to widen market access in India, to establish wholly owned stores in the country.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) is considering such a move to enable investments by foreign brands such as Apple, a senior government official told ET.

This is a big IF. The Govt. may consider this, and even if does end up happening, it’ll be years before we see a company-run Apple Store in India. I wouldn’t get my hopes high yet.

November 4, 2015 ✚ Permalink

Apple India’s “Store Expansion Programme”

This morning, I noticed this listing on Apple’s Jobs website. The listing is for Training Delivery – India for Apple India in Bangalore, but I found the job summary very interesting (emphasis mine):

Due to a store expansion programme, we are seeking a trainer to work alongside the current training team.

According to an ET report in late March, the company plans to triple its exclusive stores in the country to 200 by 2015 and has been in talks with the government of India to relax the ‘local-sourcing’ clause in its policy on FDI in single-brand retail.

Apple has also recently hired Angela Ahrendts as its senior vice president of retail and online stores and I’m definitely looking forward to her work in the coming months.

May 6, 2014 ✚ Permalink

Apple Rolling Out INR Pricing on the Indian App Store [Updated]

(See Update at the bottom of the post)

Apple today has started displaying the prices for apps on the Indian App Store in Indian Rupees (INR) instead of US Dollars. @Sirajsoft and @arvindVMA both pointed out on Twitter that some apps on the Indian App Store were starting to display prices with a prefix of “Rs” instead of the regular $ sign. Ever since its launch, the Indian App Store has always displayed the prices of apps in USD and the day’s FX rate is applicable when someone purchases an app.

A few apps are already displaying prices in Rupees as seen in the screenshots below.

The change seems to be rolling out inconsistently though, as not all of the apps are showing the correct pricing. While all the apps are now using the “Rs” prefix, some are still displaying the value in USD as it is. So while $0.99 should be Rs. 55, the value is still being shown as Rs. 0.99.

If you share a link to an app published on the Indian App Store, the price now shows up in Rupees in the browser too. I’m going to go ahead and call this a new feature and not just a bug or test, possibly in preparation of the iPhone 5 launched in India early next month. It’s also interesting to note that Apple is using a flat conversion rate of Rs. 55 per US Dollar and decided to use the “Rs” prefix instead of the now official Rupee symbol.

Update: According to @RajaVijayaraman, Apple has added the following local currencies to the App Store today.

  • Russian Ruble
  • Turkish lira
  • Indian Rupees
  • Indonesian Rupiah
  • Israeli New Shekel
  • South African Rand
  • Saudi Riyal
  • UAE Dirham

October 26, 2012 ✚ Permalink

Ipsita Dasgupta Hired to Lead Apple India's Streaming Services

Writankar Mukherjee, writing for ETtech:

Apple has roped in Ipsita Dasgupta as India country manager for its streaming services like Apple TV+, Apple Music and the App Store.

Dasgupta has joined the iPhone maker from Hotstar where she was president of strategy and new ventures.

She has succeeded Khushboo Ponwar who had last year moved on as head of business development for Apple in India, Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Dasgupta, who is an MBA from Harvard, took charge this month.

Apple needs to focus heavily on some good content in the coming months if it’s serious about Apple TV+ here in India. But I also hope that there’s a good developer evangelism plan for the apps coming out of India. There’s no dearth of shitty apps here with suboptimal experiences.

June 3, 2020 ✚ Permalink

Warren Buffett’s Paper Wizard

Here’s something from Apple that dropped in totally out of the blue — A side-scrolling game for iPhone, in partnership with Warren Buffet.

Think you can toss a newspaper like the legendary Warren Buffett? Test your paper-flinging skills as you make your way from the streets of Omaha, Nebraska, all the way to Cupertino, California. Avoid vehicles and birds as you deliver papers to buildings near and far. Will anyone collect enough Warren Bucks to dethrone the Paper Wizard? Probably not.

The game is published by Wildlife Design, Inc on the App Store, but Apple still holds the rights to the game and according to 9to5Mac, also helped out with the development.

May 7, 2019 ✚ Permalink