Apple's Cook to make maiden India visit, meet PM

NEW DELHI: Apple CEO

Tim Cook

is all set for his India debut, the visit coming at a time when the American electronics giant faces increasing pressure to grow global sales amidst declining volumes in China, its second largest market after the US.

This will be Cook’s maiden visit to India as Apple CEO and he is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 21 amid high expectations that the company may announce local manufacturing partnerships here, to be in line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme.

Cook is expected to give an outline of the company’s investment plans in his meeting with the Prime Minister while he also holds takes an update on the various partners that are involved in the company’s operations in the market, including top distribution partners, sources said.

The company is enthused by the high growth rates it has been witnessing in India sales – even though the annual revenues still remain low at over a billion dollars – and feels it is the best time to expand further. Cook’s seriousness on the Indian market can be gauged by the statement he made about the company’s outlook on India at Apple’s quarterly results late last month.

“It is already the third largest smartphone market in the world… But I view India as where China was may be seven to ten years ago (and) from that point of view, and I think there’s a really great opportunity there,” Cook had said as he announced a 56% growth in iPhone sales in India in the quarter that ended March 2016. China region sales for the company – estimated at around a quarter of its volumes – went down by 11% in the same period.

Apple is clearly excited about the prospects in India, which prompted the company to look at setting up fully-owned retail stores in the market. The government has already waived off 30% local sourcing mandate for Apple and it may soon start implementing its retail expansion strategy.

The only dampener that the company has received in the Indian market is the denial by the government to its plans to sell re-furbished phones here. “India cannot be used as a dumpyard for junked products,” a top government official said while spelling out the reasons for the denial.

Apple is also upbeat on the Indian market due to the fast roll-out of 4G services here. Cook made a mention of the development in the analyst call post the quarterly results. “ ...if you look at India, and each country has a different story a bit, but the things that have held not only us back perhaps but some others as well is that the LTE roll-out with India just really began this year, and so we’ll begin to see some really good networks coming on in India."