Politics

Apple defers launch of online store in India, says report

Updated : January 29, 2020 10:50 AM IST

Apple has postponed plans to start company-owned online store in India from the January-March quarter to August-September.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will make his second India visit around June-July to take stock of the India business.

Apple shipped 1.9 million units of iPhone to India last year, up from 1.8 million units in 2018.

Apple has postponed plans to start its own online stores in India from the January-March quarter to August-September. The company wants more time to complete the back-end work, according to an Economic Times report.

The idea is to launch around a high sales period to coincide with the launch of new iPhones before the festive season, the ET report quoted two industry executives as saying.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will make his second India visit around June-July to take stock of the India business, including manufacturing expansion, exports from the country and roll out of both company-owned online and brick and mortar Apple stores, the report said. Cook is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Apple CEO first visited India in 2016.

“Since over 30 percent of iPhone sales in India is generated from e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon, the company wants to time the India launch around launch of new iPhones,” ET quoted one of the executive as saying. He said while it was earlier targeting this quarter considering Apple may launch a new iPhone model, but back-end work like logistics and supply chain are still not sorted to meet global standards, the report added.

Apple will set up its first Apple Store in Mumbai followed by another one in Delhi-NCR, the report quoted executives as saying. Apple shipped 1.9 million units of iPhone to India last year, up from 1.8 million units in 2018, as per market researcher Counterpoint Research.

Apple defers launch of online store in India, says report

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