Pegatron may sell India iPhone plant to Tata

Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra, reporting for Reuters:

Pegatron, opens new tab is in advanced talks to hand over control of its only iPhone manufacturing facility in India to the Tata Group, said two sources with direct knowledge, marking the Taiwanese firm’s latest scale back of its Apple, opens new tab partnership.
Under the deal, which has received the backing of Apple, Tata plans to hold at least a 65% stake in a joint venture that will operate the Pegatron plant near Chennai city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with the Taiwanese firm providing technical support and holding the rest, one of the sources said.

Tata already operates an iPhone assembly plant in the neighbouring southern state of Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron (3231.TW), opens new tab last year, and is also building another in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, where Pegatron is likely to emerge as its joint venture partner.

April 8, 2024 ✚ Permalink

Apple reports "all-time revenue record" from India

Apple reported their quarterly results for Q4’22 yesterday and the folks at Six Colors have published their transcript of the call that Tim Cook and Luca Maestri have with analysts.

During the call, Apple mentioned that the company saw double-digit grown in India and iPhone growth was “impressive”.

iPhone Revenue grew 10% year over year to a September quarter record of 42.6 billion despite significant foreign exchange headwinds. We set September quarter records in the vast majority of markets we track, and our performance was particularly impressive in several large emerging markets with India setting a new all-time revenue record and Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico more than doubling year over year. Thanks to our strong iPhone lineup, we set a quarterly record for upgraders and grew switchers double digits. This level of sales performance, along with unmatched customer loyalty, drove the active installed base of iPhones to a new all time high across all geographic segments.

(Emphasis mine.)

No surprises here. The iPhone continues to get more expensive in India, yet more people continue to buy it every year.

October 28, 2022 ✚ Permalink

Apple India Hiring for a Number of Apple Retail Roles as it Prepares to Launch Apple Stores in Mumbai & New Delhi

Apple Store Launching Soon in India

Apple is inching close to launching the country’s first Apple Stores, with the first one opening soon in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai, followed closely by a second one opening in New Delhi. Apple India has been working on bringing its stores to Indian shores for a really long time now — as early as 2014 — and some of the recent developments indicate that the launch could happen very soon, as early as January 2022. The company already launched the Apple Online Store in India a little over a year ago.

The company has begun hiring for a number of roles in Apple Retail, such as Store Leader, Genius, Specialist, Technical Special, Senior Manager, Manager, Operations Expert, Market Leader, Expert, Creative, Business Pro, Business Expert, etc. All of these Apple Retail roles are available in Mumbai, Maharashtra as well as in New Delhi.

It’s important to note that for many of these roles, Apple is seeking individuals interested in working part-time or contractual-basis, in addition to full-time. The job listings indicate that candidates can even apply to work only for a few hours on weekends, giving a few hours every week towards the role.

It’ll be interesting to see what strategy the company chooses to follow in India, where its product-line has always been seen as “overpriced” and yet has seen an upward trend in adoption, especially iPhones. I’m also curiously excited to see what changes the company brings to its hardware repair & support experience, which is currently offered through third-party resellers and is generally considered disappointing.

[Featured Image by Andy Wang]

November 17, 2021 ✚ Permalink

Apple Online Store is Coming to India on September 23

Folks, it has finally happened. It’s here! I can’t believe it.

After several years of speculations and rumours, Apple has finally confirmed that the Apple Online Store is finally launching in India on September 23, 2020. I had leaked the upcoming release just a few days ago.

This isn’t a simple online store launch, they’re going all in:

The Apple Store online is the most convenient destination to shop for Apple products, with online Apple Specialists available to help with anything from custom-configuring any Mac to setting up new devices. Customers can get advice, receive guidance, and learn about new products directly from Apple, both in English and Hindi.

With financing options and an available trade-in program, the Apple Store online offers a range of affordability options. Students can shop for a Mac or iPad with special pricing, and receive discounts on accessories and AppleCare+. In October, customers can expect free online Today at Apple sessions led by local Creative Pros, focused on photography and music. Just in time for the festive season, signature gift wrap and personalized engraving will be available for select products. Engraving of emoji or text in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu will be available for AirPods, and English engraving will be available for iPad and Apple Pencil.

Apple has been trying for years to get approval from the Indian Govt. to open a physical Apple store in India. Thankfully, the launch isn’t too far with the first Apple Store in the country opening in BKC in Mumbai.

September 18, 2020 ✚ 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

Indian Government Approves 100% Foreign Direct Investment for Single-Brand Retail; Signaling a Major Win for Apple

The Union Cabinet today approved changes to the FDI norms for India. The government has eased norms across various key sectors at a meeting led by the PM Narendra Modi, such as construction, aviation, etc. However, the most notable and relevant change comes in the single-brand retail sector. The Indian Government has now approved 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for single-brand retail in India via the Automatic Route. Previously, it was possible to invest up to 49 percent via the automatic route — anything higher than 49 percent required a government approval.

The amendments announced today are “intended to liberalize and simplify the FDI policy so as to provide ease of doing business in the country”, said a release by the Press Information Bureau.

This change is a major win for Apple, who has been trying to setup their own stores in India for a while now. The company did get a step closer in their attempts in April of 2016, but the Indian government wasn’t ready to relax the local sourcing norms for Apple. However, in June that year, the government announced some radical changes to the FDI policy that raised our hopes yet again. Today’s announcements have hopefully brought Apple India a little closer to their goal.

The government has also decided to permit entities to “set off” the 30% local sourcing norms for the first five years, beginning 1st April of the year of opening the first store.

I have been waiting for a really long time to see company-run Apple Stores in India, not for the sales experience, but rather to experience Apple’s incredible support first-hand. It sure seems that the dream is closer to being a reality now.

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

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