Apple opens first India store as fans take selfies with Tim Cook
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MUMBAI - About 300 people lined up outside Apple’s store in Mumbai on Tuesday, with fans taking selfies with CEO Tim Cook who inaugurated the first retail store run by the company in India ,
People gathered from across the nation, hoping to be among the first to enter the store in an opening event featuring local music and folk dancers.
Some fans queued overnight outside the store in Jio World Drive mall to get their hands on Apple products, even though they are available online in India.
“The fanboy inside me would not listen,” said Mr Purav Mehta, 30, as he waited to get Mr Cook’s signature on his boxed mint-condition iPod touch bought on eBay. He also planned to buy the Apple Watch Ultra.
Many wore black turtlenecks in the style favoured by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs; some had their hair cut in the shape of the Apple logo; and one fan even brought a version of the first Apple computer launched in 1984.
“The vibe here is just different,” said Mr Aan Shah, 23, who had travelled to Mumbai from the western industrial city of Ahmedabad for the launch. “It’s not like buying from some normal store. There’s just no comparison. It’s so exciting.”
His love for Apple took him to store openings as a young student in New York and Boston, where he once got a chance to meet Mr Cook, he said.
People posing with Apple products while waiting in a queue outside India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Apple previously faced hurdles in opening physical retail stores in India, but its products have been available on e-commerce websites, while its online store opened in 2020.
The new store opens as Indian consumers increasingly look to upgrade their smartphones to glitzier models with richer feature sets from budget devices typically costing less than US$120 (S$160).
Still, Apple’s pricey phones are affordable for only a few in India, where it accounts for just a 3 per cent share of the market.
India has more than 600 million smartphone users, with Android devices dominating the price-sensitive market.
Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi, vivo, Oppo and Realme had a combined market share of 66 per cent in 2022, according to research firm Canalys, while Samsung held a 19 per cent share.
Bloggers, the media and tech analysts had a private preview of the new store on Monday, while several Indian film and television celebrities met Mr Cook that night.
A second store in Delhi, the capital, is set to open on Thursday.
Mr Cook is set to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the deputy IT minister later this week.
Supply chain
Mr Cook said in a February earnings call that “India is a hugely exciting market for us and is a major focus”.
“We are, in essence, taking what we learned in China years ago and how we scale… and bringing that to bear.”
Apple was “putting a significant amount of energy” into India, he added, saying he was “very bullish” on the country.
Apple CEO Tim Cook greets people at the inauguration of India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai.
PHOTO: REUTERS
India is also becoming central to Apple’s plans to shift its production of devices and components away from China,
Just 1 per cent of Apple’s iPhones were made in India in 2021, but that jumped to 7 per cent in 2022, Bloomberg News reported last week, citing sources.
The company began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 through Taiwanese suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.
Foxconn said in March that its chairman had visited India, but there was no “definitive agreement” for investments in the country after the chief minister of Karnataka in the south said iPhones would be manufactured in his state. REUTERS
