Apple Inc. in India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Apple stores
2023: Mumbai
Source: Nandagopal Rajan/ Why Apple Stores in India are a big deal/ The Indian Express/ April 18, 2023
Apple is opening two company-owned stores in Mumbai and Delhi, India, which is significant because regulatory restrictions had previously prevented it from doing so. With these stores, Apple will be able to manage everything from manufacturing to retail in India, making it a full stack player in the country. Apple claims to be supporting over 1 million jobs in India through its developer network, and customers will be able to buy India-made iPhones at these new stores.
Locations: in Mumbai, a flagship retail outlet at the Jio World Centre in BKC. In New Delhi: Saket
The experience of shopping at an Apple Store is different from buying Apple products online. The focus at an Apple Store is on the experience.
The first Apple Store opened in the United States in 2001. In 2023,, Apple has over 500 physical stores worldwide, some of which have become iconic locations in cities such as Paris and New York.
App(lications’) store
Sales, 2024
Pankaj Doval, April 28, 2025: The Times of India
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From: Pankaj Doval, April 28, 2025: The Times of India
New Delhi : It’s not just the multi-billion-dollar sale of iPhones and lucrative exports, the world’s biggest electronics company Apple has also hit a jackpot in developer billings and sales on the iOS app ecosystem in India.
The Cupertino-headquartered company has reaped in a rich engagement through its app ecosystem in India, raking in $5.3 billion (around Rs 44,447 crore) last year.
This has opened a whole new frontier for the company in India, and has seen Apple’s business engagement cross nearly $27 billion (Rs 2.3 lakh crore) in 2024, sources told TOI. This includes around $8 billion of sales of iPhones and other products such as Air Pods, MacBooks and iPads in the local market, $14 billion of exports (a large part to the US), and $5-billion-plus of app store transactions.
Such has been the intensity through the India app Store that Apple’s global CEO Tim Cook has termed it a “miracle for developers in India” due to the rush in transactions. “The app store has been an economic miracle for developers in India and all around the world, and we’re thrilled to support their work,” Cook said as he commented on the billings and sales estimates for 2024, arrived at in a study conducted by IIM, Ahmedabad, professor Viswanath Pingali.
Cook further said, “This study underlines the power of India’s incredibly vibrant app economy. And we’re committed to keep investing in the success of developers of all sizes as they build apps that make an important impact and enrich people’s lives.” Interestingly, more than 94% of billings and sales facilitated by the app store in India accrued solely to the developers, without any commission paid to Apple. Also, the global earnings of India-based developers tripled over the past five years through the engagement on the apps which are available across Apple’s markets.
On an average, more than 22 million users visited the India app store each week – double to what it was three years ago. Throughout the year, iOS users in India downloaded apps nearly 1.1 billion times, which is also almost double to what it was three years ago. A significant share of the app store ecosystem in India is driven by the local developer com- munity: 38% of the downloads by users in India in 2024 were for apps developed by India-based developers. This represents a 27% increase in the share of local downloads compared to five years ago. Talking about the global reach, the study shows that close to 80% of India-based developers’ app store earnings came from users outside of the country, and 87% of developers were active on multiple storefronts (countries).
“Throughout the same year, users from all over the world downloaded apps from developers in India more than 755 million times through the app store — twice as many as five years ago. Many apps from India-based developers have also appeared on the most-downloaded app charts in storefronts outside of India, and apps from India-based developers were in the top 100 most-downloaded apps in 70 storefronts outside of India.” In the last five years, downloads by Indian users have more than tripled, and earnings from these users have increased more than five-fold, the study said.
Exports from India
2019: exports begin
Nov 26, 2019: The Times of India
Apple told the government that it will increase manufacturing and financial commitment in India, and has also started export of devices from the country. Shipments from Apple and other phone and component manufacturers are likely to see exports double to $3.2 billion this fiscal, IT and electronics minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Prasad met officials from the iPhone maker who told him the company has started assembling XR device at the Chennai factory of Taiwanese contract-maker Foxconn.
Apple had initially begun local assembly in India in 2017 through Wistron, another Taiwanese maker, that has a factory in Bengaluru. Now, Foxconn is carrying out a major expansion for the company and cumulative investments in the project are pegged at nearly $1 billion, as reported by TOI in its September 17 editions.
“Apple’s growing engagement and the manufacturing of devices such as XR is a proud moment for India. Our focus on boosting electronics manufacturing, and the lower taxes of 15% for new manufacturing units, is a major factor that is aiding new investments,” Prasad said.
The minister said that much of the component exports from India are directed towards China.
2022/1st half
Oct 5, 2022: The Times of India
Apple’s iPhone exports from India crossed $1 billion in the five months since April, according to people familiar with the matter, reflecting the tech giant’s growing bet on the nation amid New Delhi’s push for local manufacturing. The outbound shipments of India-made iPhones, mainly to Europe and the Middle East, are set to reach $2. 5 billion in the 12 months through March 2023, almost double when compared to the year through March 2022, the Bloomberg report said.
Apple, which started making iPhones in India from 2017, started manufacturing iPhone 13 here earlier this year, and announced its plans for the latest iPhone 14. While India makes up just a small fraction of iPhone output, rising exports bode well for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to make the country an alternative to China as factory to the world. Apple, which long made most of its iPhones in China, is seeking alternatives as Xi Jinping’s administration clashes with the US government and imposes lockdowns across the country that have disrupted economic activity.
“The healthy growth in Apple’s manufacturing scale and export shows India is gradually assuming an important position in the company’s China plus one strategy,” said Navkendar Singh, an analyst at tech researcher IDC. “And for India, this a big sign of the success of its financial incentives scheme. ”
BLOOMBERG
Run ins with the law
Market dominance abused/ 2024
Pankaj Doval, August 6, 2024: The Times of India
New Delhi : Competition Commission of India’s investigative arm has found tech giant Apple abusing market dominance and engaging in unfair business practices to the detriment of lakhs of app developers and consumers, opening the prospects of potential fines running into thousands of crores of rupees as well as restraining orders.
The probe, which has been on since 2021, now seems to be veering towards closure that will see the fair play watchdog take strict action against Apple, something it also did in the case of Google India which faced similar charges of abuse of dominance.
“…it can be concluded that by virtue of its dominant position in the market for app stores for iOS in India, Apple engaged in abusive conduct and practices in violation of Section 3(4) and Section 4 of the Competition Act,” a supplementary probe report by CCI’s investigation arm says, top sources told TOI.
“… investigation is of the opinion that Apple has entered into anti-competitive agreements with app developers which have the effect of causing ‘appreciable adverse effect on competition’ in the market,” sources said while adding that investigation re- port runs into 150-odd pages and censures Apple’s in-app purchase (IAP) mandate.
The probe found Apple’s App Store an “unavoidable trading partner” for app developers who have “no choice but to adhere to Apple's unfair terms, including the mandatory use of Apple's proprietary billing and payment system”.
