Apple’s first online store to open in India September 23, students to get discounts
Apple will launch its first online store in India in a few days, the Silicon Valley giant said Friday, hoping to profit from the country’s festive season and grow its tiny share of the booming market.
The company is a tiny player in India, where sales of its smartphones lag those of South Korean rival Samsung, with the iPhone maker pricing itself exclusively at the blissful luxury end of the marketplace.
Its renewed push into India comes as Asia’s third-largest economy has hit an archive slump because of a months-long coronavirus lockdown.
As the busiest shopping season begins in October, stores offer steep discounts and freebies to customers looking to splurge on big-ticket items because they celebrate Dussehra and Diwali.
Apple’s online store, that will open for business on September 23, will provide a selection of affordable options including discounts on Macs, iPads and tech accessories for students, the company said in a news release.
Shoppers will be able to obtain AirPods, iPads and Apple Pencils engraved in English, Hindi and a variety of other Indian languages.
Apple currently sells through third-party retailers in India including Amazon, and the united states is seen as an enormous potential market for the firm due to its giant 1.3-billion population and relatively low number of smartphone owners.
The business has only a two-percent share of the Indian market, according to industry estimates.
A credit card applicatoin to open Apple Stores in India in 2016 was reportedly rebuffed because of a rule that states foreign retailers must source 30 percent of their products locally.
The union government has since relaxed the rules, giving companies up to eight years to meet the sourcing requirements, within a push to attract foreign investment and create jobs.
A few of its smartphones, including the iPhone 11, are assembled at facilities operated by Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn and Wistron in Chennai and Bangalore.
