Tim Cook announces first Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi

Delhi : Tim Cook CEO of Apple Inc. will probably visit India the following week to personally open the company's first two stores there.

Apple has announced that its first flagship retail location will be on April 18 in a mall in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex and its second location will launch on April 20 in Delhi's Saket mall.

The business announced Tuesday that it would welcome customers at two new retail sites in India on April 18 and April 20, respectively, at Apple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in Delhi. Citing people familiar with the situation, that Cook is likely to "preside over the opening of the twin outlets in India's financial and political capital."

The journey occurs seven years after Cook's first visit, which he made in 2016 as part of a national tour.

Since that time, India has experienced record-breaking iPhone sales, and the nation now exports billions of dollars' worth of iPhones every year. In light of the difficult relations between Beijing and Washington, the Bloomberg report stated that "Apple is betting on India to diversify its assembly operations beyond China."

Apple has also requested that Cook meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before establishing the two stores. PM Modi's administration has promoted electronics manufacturing and provided incentives worth billions of dollars to entice Foxconn Technology Group and Pegatron Corp., two of Apple's manufacturing partners.

Customers won't have to wait in long checkout lines in the new Apple Stores, as executives will have mobile payment terminals. Furthermore, these Apple Stores will hold 'Today at Apple' workshops that are hosted by experts including musicians, graphic designers, developers, photographers, and filmmakers. The sessions would feature small-scale concerts, live performances, and master seminars that will place Apple's goods front and centre.

Both locations have been in the works for a while since India forbids international firms from operating their own stores unless they obtain a substantial portion of their raw materials domestically.

Tim Cook had expressed his extreme optimism for India in February. We feel very comfortable about how we did since, when looking at the company in India, we achieved a quarterly sales record and had robust double-digit growth year over year. That's in spite of the challenges we discussed," Cook remarked in response to a query from an analyst on India during the Q1 '23 earnings call on 3 February.