Apple's commitment to diversify its line of business not only includes ceasing to depend so much on the iPhone by offering new services, but also open new markets. India is the last most important bet that the company is making, a market with more than 1.200 million inhabitants, although it is costing it a lot.
It is costing him a lot because the government of the country is very protectionist with local companies and it demands a series of obligors from foreign companies that want to establish themselves in the country. One of them is that 30% of the products must be manufactured in the country, forcing Foxconn, and other companies, to transfer their production to the country.
Apple planned to open the first store in India in 2020, but finally the company itself, through Tim Cook, has confirmed that it is forced to delay its plans to open the first official store in the country.
For a decade, Apple has relied solely on third-party vendors, stores, and markets to sell its products in India. That will start to change this year.
At the company's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook told investors that Apple will open its online store in India, the world's second-largest smartphone market, sometime this year, and which will open its first official store in 2021.
In October of last year, Apple reached an agreement to open its first physical Apple Store in the country in the Maker Maxity Mall, located in Mumbai Bandra Kurla complex. The opening was scheduled for September this year, but as Tim Cook himself has confirmed, the country's inhabitants will have to wait until 2021.
