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Apple is close to gaining clearance to open its first retail store locations in India, according to a source familiar with the matter speaking with Bloomberg. Apple will be re-submitting its retail presence application to the Indian government due to a format problem, but Bloomberg's source said that India plans to push the application through without issue.

apple_store_genius_bar_official.jpg

Due to the fact that Apple is "a provider of cutting-edge technology," the Cupertino-based company will be exempt from a rule set by the Indian government that states any foreign businesses selling a single brand must acquire 30 percent of its product's manufacturing inputs locally. Since Apple manufactures most of its products in China, the stipulation has been an issue for the company in trying to make headway into the Indian retail market.
"Most of the growth in India will come from new users coming into the Apple ecosystem, unlike in the West where growth is mainly from existing users upgrading," said Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, based near New Delhi. “You can expect the stores to focus mostly on iPhones.”
Due to the high-end pricing of the iPhone, Apple has remained a small share of the smartphone market within India for the past few years. With 2 percent of the market, Apple is behind companies like Samsung (26 percent), Intex (10 percent), and Lenovo (9 percent) in terms of smartphone sales.
bloomberg-india-iphone-market.jpg

Last summer, Apple announced the Authorized Mobility Resellers program in India, which was reported to be focused on opening 500 retail store locations across 12 cities in India. With such a small share of the country's 220 million smartphone users, it seems Apple is finally getting closer to increasing its foothold in the country.

Article Link: Apple Close to Approval for Opening Retail Locations in India
 
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Mac Fly (film)

macrumors 68020
Feb 12, 2006
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Ireland
1. Poor country
2. Rapidly growing middle class
3. 2% is small
4. 2% leaves lots of room for growth.

You can except the stores to mostly focus on iPhones? He calls himself an analyst? The safest bet is these Apple stores sell every Apple product as every other Apple stores sells, including the watch and people choose what to buy. People buy lots of iPhones because everyone needs a phone.
 
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xARx2

macrumors member
Nov 2, 2014
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This is where the 5SE will sell. Lower cost to suit market conditions
Unless they price it at a lower point than the 5C, it's not going to sell well. It has to be affordable. If it isn't, people are simply going to purchase earlier iPhones or a non-Apple device entirely.
 

pratikindia

macrumors 6502
Apr 7, 2014
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Apple will do well in India with the opening of these retail stores. Apple will do well mostly in big cities. In smaller cities it is doubtful where lower priced phones rule.
 
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iThingsGurl

macrumors 6502a
Dec 3, 2014
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lol

I bet there are more 'rich people that buy apple stuff' in india than in canada or australia :-D

On the contrary, fewer people buy Apple products in India because there are no official Apple Stores in India yet - and thus a dearth of other services attributed to Apple Stores like repair, support. As of today, Apple products are only sold via 'Apple approved' resellers, and hence result in a phenomenal increase in product costs especially the iPhone. Given the fact that contracts are not so prevalent there and people prefer buying phones outright, people are repelled by the inflated iPhone costs - for now. As a result, Apple enjoys a humble 2% market share there. Yet with Apple growing rapidly in India (most recently, a 76% growth in Q1 2016), along with official Apple Stores coming soon, I am sure Samsung's 26% market share is doomed.
 

b0fh666

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2012
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think I expressed myself poorly... let me retry : more rich people capable of buying apple stuff in india than in canada or australia.

makes more sense now?

apple might have lost the train there tough - android reigns supreme by now.

oddly, I was there last year and there was a store in south mumbai that sold all things apple (cept for the watch) at the time. probably an independent importer.
 

iThingsGurl

macrumors 6502a
Dec 3, 2014
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Canada
think I expressed myself poorly... let me retry : more rich people capable of buying apple stuff in india than in canada or australia.

makes more sense now?

apple might have lost the train there tough - android reigns supreme by now.

oddly, I was there last year and there was a store in south mumbai that sold all things apple (cept for the watch) at the time. probably an independent importer.

The quotes confused me :)

You are right. Android reigns supreme, for now. But I think Apple can secure a huge chunk of pie in the high-end segment. Which is probably why Cook reiterated that iPhone 5se might not be just another cheaper variant.
 
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Oblivious.Robot

macrumors 6502a
Sep 15, 2014
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The quotes confused me :)

I think what he is trying to simply say is that there are a lot of rich folks in India, albeit a lot more poor ones too.
But with such a high density of population ~1.2b, and a crazy rich to poor ratio.
Even if half or more of the population is poor (assuming ~800m), and other in a rising middle class (~300m) so there are still (~100m) or so who are surprisingly rich who can afford Apple products at ease, so if Apple is just able to get their attention, they can sell more than the population of Canada (~35m) and Australia (23m) combined.
 
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