AppleInsider StaffApple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs may make a rare trip to Asia next month to oversee the launch of the company's new R&D center and support facility in Bangalore, India.
The trip will mark a rare visit for Jobs, who is usually conservative in his travel plans, sources told the publication. Those sources said the only Asian country he has visited in his official capacity is Japan.
However, Jobs does have a special affinity to India. In the 1970's, he spent four years as a “hippie spiritual tourist†visiting holy places in the country, the report notes.
Jobs reportedly admires India as one of the fast growing economies in the world, but Apple has just around four percent market share in the country for its products.
The Bangalore facility, which was revealed by the India press earlier this month, will reportedly hire as many as 1,500 people by the end of this year, and have a total of 3,000 employees by the end of 2007.
Sources had previously told the India Times the facility would be built for Apple by property developer RMZ Corp in its EcoSpace property on the outer ring road near Marathahalli.
RMZ is said to be creating a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility for Apple in the first phase of development, and 1.5 lakh sq ft in the second phase.
Apple's decision to set up the facility in Bangalore was reportedly taken after a rigorous examination of seven cities in India. It's expected to be on the lines of the facility that Dell has established in India.
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17 Comments
Thank you! Come again!
I hope he gets fed up with the language barrier and throws a camera. Or cancels the project, either one is fine.
India's win is not a loss for America, however, we should be more demanding of our politicians, tax structure, insurance practices, and legal structure that it be more favorable to new business... otherwise it tends to go away to the countries that ARE more favorable.
at the risk of sounding too pro-Anglo, there is definitely a language barrier when i connect to many of these help facilities located in india, even when their knowledge of english is fine, strained through a phoneline with a very THICK accent, it becomes very frustrating to get points across, or understand what they tell me to try, do, or call.
our latest headache was fixing a massive problem with a travelocity order. maybe it was just our luck, but we kept getting folks with heavy indian accents on the phone, and our problem was very complicated. took SEVEN HOURS on the phone with them over the span of two weeks, mostly because problems kept getting lost or mangled in translation.
mind you, it's no better when i call belkin looking for tech support for one of my products and someone with an almost impenetrable latin accent answers the phone. or some slacker kid who mumbles everything. or someone who WILL NOT stop their conversation with the techie sitting at the desk next to them.
when your only interface with a person you need help from is audio, that audio has to be crystal clear, both in signal, as well as message.
Calm down, folks. Apple isn't firing anybody in the US, Canada or Ireland, they're adding employees everywhere because they're growing. Also remember that Apple has customers worldwide, not just North America and Europe. For example, the article mentions that they have 4% market share of the Indian PC market, so these employees will likely handle those calls as well, and maybe calls from many Asian countries.
Also, because this is in-house, I would expect the training and English skills to be top notch. This isn't a cheap outsourcing job that's going to the lowest bidder.