Apple is about to launch its first-ever official Apple retail store in India. Apple BKC is located in the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, the largest city in the subcontinent. According to the iPhone maker, the store will open “soon”. The group had tried for many years to establish a retail presence in India, but initially failed due to government regulations.
Role model China: manufacture and sale
The Republic of India is considered a central new location for Apple. This applies not only to the manufacture of the group’s core products, where India could one day overtake China, but also to the sale of hardware and services to the region’s ever-growing middle and upper classes. Apple sees an enormous need to catch up here, as CEO Tim Cook has indicated several times in recent years. All of this is reminiscent of China, which has grown from a production location to Apple’s second to third most important market behind the USA.
Apple BKC is supposed to represent that. It is a classic flagship store of the company, with an architecture reminiscent of large stores in New York, Beijing or Milan. The sales area is over 2000 square meters, hundreds of employees are likely to work there. Retail boss Deirdre O’Brien is also said to be come to India to start the store. According to local media reports, the time has come in May after “several delays”.
High investments from Apple and manufacturers
Apple, together with its large manufacturers such as Foxconn, Wistron, Luxshare or Pegatron, invests many millions in the production site in India. This applies to accessories such as AirPods as well as iPhones and other products. The country is also a possible location for Mac and iPad. Apple is putting significant pressure on its suppliers to speed up the transition.
The problems that Apple increasingly faced in China during the Corona period are one of the reasons for the diversification of the production chain. Lockdowns in Zhengzhou had ruined Apple’s Christmas quarter because there weren’t enough iPhone 14 Pro models in the retail channel. However, India is not completely ideal as a manufacturing location. There is more bureaucracy than in China, Apple has to establish production and supply chains itself, and the question of whether enough workers can be recruited is also unclear. Recently, Apple even tried to bring India’s working conditions into line with those of China, which was successful in the first provinces.
(bsc)
