AppleInsider Staff
A report on Friday claims Apple has tentatively agreed to a proposed retail expansion in India that will see 500 new reseller storefronts pop up in underserved regions of the country.
Citing a source with ties to Apple, The Times of India reports the Cupertino tech giant is planning a major push into India over the coming months, supposedly in hopes of becoming a more mainstream brand. Currently, rival smartphone maker Samsung dominates the smartphone landscape in the country.
"All this will change now," the source said. "The company is finalizing plans to become a serious player in India, which is being seen as a strategic and one of the most promising markets globally."
Another person familiar with Apple's plans expects iPhone sales to triple in 2015. For the current calendar year running through September, Apple sold approximately one million handsets in India, but the expansion could boost numbers to above three million, the source said.
According to the report, Apple's plans likely involve local distributors Redington and Ingram Micro, which parse out products like the iPhone to Apple Premium Resellers, Apple Authorized Resellers and regional distributors. The new stores may take on a franchise model led by Redington and are said to range from 300 to 600 square feet, a sizable step down from the over 2,000-square-foot outlets currently operating in big cities.
Today's report echoes a similar rumor from March claiming Apple was working to open smaller shops in "tier II" regions of India. Reports at the time said stores would be smaller than 600 square feet and would focus on iPhone and iPad models along with lower-end Macs and iPods. At the time, there was no mention of franchising, as Redington and Ingram Micro were expected to run the outlets.
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21 Comments
Maybe it's just me, but I think there is more potential for vast sales in China, versus India. How large is their population of top-wage earners, anyway? UPDATE: Well, I did find this which suggests despite their enormous population there are half as many billionaires in India as there are in China, which probably applies also to their millionaire and upper class demographics. Economically speaking, it seems India has less opportunity for their citizens. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_US_dollar_billionaires
Maybe it's just me, but I think there is more potential for vast sales in China, versus India. How large is their population of top-wage earners, anyway?
UPDATE: Well, I did find this which suggests despite their enormous population there are half as many billionaires in India as there are in China, which probably applies also to their millionaire and upper class demographics. Economically speaking, it seems India has less opportunity for their citizens.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_US_dollar_billionaires
Best to leave no stone unturned in the quest for world domination.
Apple push into India has been pathetic so far. Basic problem in India: price sensitive consumers that are not locked into the Apple ecosystem in any way. Limited itunes penetration with limited music and movie content for Indians. AppleTV ... Same problem. Mac, No heavy usage since too expensive for the average user. Very little if any reason to develop for the mac india. Many users have their phone as their only "computer". Web and local websites are still fairly limited. GPS and mapping in general is used vastly less in India. More streets need actual names to start with. Indians love to show off their new tech and many want a flashy bauble to show off... The upper middle class likes to change phones practically yearly so they can be seen as having the "next big thing" but they rarely if ever use the smartphones full capability due to all the other factors I mentioned. They loved showing off their huge samsung galaxy note and whatnot as a statu symbol. Apple watch may actually see some penetration since folks like to show off what they own, however if Indians don't own many iphones... Why buy one? Indians do love gold as jewelery more than any other group on the planet, maybe they will buy the gold watch. There are no real tax incentives to buy "tech" in India. In other words no real "write off" for a home computer. On the other hand there is a lot of "black" money (money hidden from the government) as a routine part of any major transaction in India. People use black money in stores so they can get rid of cash which they have a hard time hoarding anyway... Many will use that money for their discretionary funds instead of their "white" money which they paid taxes on. At this point Apple pay is a total loser since almost nobody uses or trusts credit cards (extreme poor security) in India. Indians would use Apple pay if there were no other credit card in the middle perhaps. The credit card availability problem also translates to less folks who actually use the app store or itunes for purchases. Most storefronts in India lack a web presence. Many American restaurants (even small ones) now have a web presence with a menu at least, reviews on yelp, etc. Honestly, without all these aspects your smartphone is not that useful Potential for ecommerce revenue is less due to lack of high speed delivery services of the UPS or Fedex caliber. Itunes: needs multi-artist tagging capabity for the majority of Indian music or you will have a bunch of pissed off artists. Multi-genre capability is needed. A new "language" tag would also be helpful. A serious revolution would have to be brought about in India in total software and cloud services as well as general infrastructure, not just in selling a phone. Apple products are more attractive in America for a lot of reasons besides just being good smartphones. That's not to say that the pace isn't fast in India, but it has a ways to go in order to catch up to the US or Japan in this regard. In many ways, most people use their smartphones like glorified feature phones in India. Even simple features like Airplay are likely getting limited usage. I hope Apple can "get it done" since potential growth in India is so huge.
Bah Humbug!
Even if you granted that many of these are more or less mall kiosks,
that's more stores than Apple currently has worldwide.
O! The logistics!...partners or not.
The article doesn't really suggest the timeframe for this many openings,
but an expansion on this scale in a country where you aren't currently
that much of a presence, and, in fact, have no retail outlets,
isn't likely to be the sweeping success the article portends.
[quote name="blazar" url="/t/183740/apple-partners-in-india-to-reportedly-expand-operations-with-500-stores#post_2647895"]Apple push into India has been pathetic so far. Basic problem in India: price sensitive consumers that are not locked into the Apple ecosystem in any way. Limited itunes penetration with limited music and movie content for Indians. AppleTV ... Same problem. Mac, No heavy usage since too expensive for the average user. Very little if any reason to develop for the mac india. Many users have their phone as their only "computer". Web and local websites are still fairly limited. GPS and mapping in general is used vastly less in India. More streets need actual names to start with. Indians love to show off their new tech and many want a flashy bauble to show off... The upper middle class likes to change phones practically yearly so they can be seen as having the "next big thing" but they rarely if ever use the smartphones full capability due to all the other factors I mentioned. They loved showing off their huge samsung galaxy note and whatnot as a statu symbol. Apple watch may actually see some penetration since folks like to show off what they own, however if Indians don't own many iphones... Why buy one? Indians do love gold as jewelery more than any other group on the planet, maybe they will buy the gold watch. There are no real tax incentives to buy "tech" in India. In other words no real "write off" for a home computer. On the other hand there is a lot of "black" money (money hidden from the government) as a routine part of any major transaction in India. People use black money in stores so they can get rid of cash which they have a hard time hoarding anyway... Many will use that money for their discretionary funds instead of their "white" money which they paid taxes on. At this point Apple pay is a total loser since almost nobody uses or trusts credit cards (extreme poor security) in India. Indians would use Apple pay if there were no other credit card in the middle perhaps. The credit card availability problem also translates to less folks who actually use the app store or itunes for purchases. Most storefronts in India lack a web presence. Many American restaurants (even small ones) now have a web presence with a menu at least, reviews on yelp, etc. Honestly, without all these aspects your smartphone is not that useful Potential for ecommerce revenue is less due to lack of high speed delivery services of the UPS or Fedex caliber. Itunes: needs multi-artist tagging capabity for the majority of Indian music or you will have a bunch of pissed off artists. Multi-genre capability is needed. A new "language" tag would also be helpful. A serious revolution would have to be brought about in India in total software and cloud services as well as general infrastructure, not just in selling a phone. Apple products are more attractive in America for a lot of reasons besides just being good smartphones. That's not to say that the pace isn't fast in India, but it has a ways to go in order to catch up to the US or Japan in this regard. In many ways, most people use their smartphones like glorified feature phones in India. Even simple features like Airplay are likely getting limited usage. I hope Apple can "get it done" since potential growth in India is so huge.[/quote] I disagree with your final statement, which contradicts every statement leading up to it. An enormous population doesn't automatically equal enormous potential or profits when there are so many cultural and economic barriers.