Apple working to bring entire product line to India, Tim Cook says
Apple CEO Tim Cook continued a tour of India on Friday, granting a one-on-one interview with a local television network that offered a bit more insight into the company's ambitions for the developing market.
Apple CEO Tim Cook visits the Mac lab at GNITS women's college in India. | Source: Tim Cook via Twitter
Speaking with NDTV's Vikram Chandra, Cook hit many of the same talking points covered in an interview published by The Hindu earlier today. With 40 minutes of onscreen time, however, the Apple chief was able to speak at length about key initiatives planned for India, including a "holistic" effort to bring all current Apple products and services to the massive Asian market.
During his limited time in the country, Cook said he learned a great deal about India's business and culture, two key elements Apple must understand if it hopes to gain a foothold in the region. Specifically, Apple's multi-pronged approach involves comprehensive evaluations of government operations, consumer culture, media, services, technical talent and more. This includes investments like a recently announced iOS design and development center in Bengaluru and a Maps development facility in Hyderabad.
He added that cultivating the Indian market is a top-five priority for Apple. There has been concern on Wall Street that Apple faces a tough road ahead in China, a major market Apple itself expects will one day be its largest, prompting speculation that the iPhone maker plans to ratchet up efforts in India. Given Cook's statements, it seems those rumors hold water.
Apple is in ongoing talks with regional wireless carriers, government agencies and corporations over future initiatives in the country. It is eyeing what appears to be an aggressive expansion in hardware, retail sales, internet services and more, but must first arrange appropriate regulatory approvals and private sector partnerships.
There are obstacles standing in the way of progress, however. For instance, Apple has yet to gain approval for importing and selling preowned iPhones, a key strategy in introducing customers to the iOS ecosystem. Indian consumers are used to purchasing low- to mid-tier handsets, meaning iPhone might be a tough sell amid competition from the like of Samsung. Cook voiced his optimism in the process, adding that Apple's lineup will appeal to both current and future buyers.
A clip of the interview was posted to YouTube today.
Other themes were discussed, like whether Apple would consider modifying its brand, pricing or devices to better fit Indian culture. Chandra asked if Cook would consider releasing an iPhone designed specifically for India, for example.
Cook believes Apple's brand identity -- a California tech company with global reach -- is a strong asset, and while that won't change anytime soon, the company is investigating how to better market its products to the Indian demographic. To that end, Apple is working on competitive price tiers for iPhone, a buildout of its internet services ecosystem and the introduction of Apple Store, among other resources, he said.
Cook is expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this weekend as his India tour comes to a close.
Apple CEO Tim Cook visits the Mac lab at GNITS women's college in India. | Source: Tim Cook via Twitter
Speaking with NDTV's Vikram Chandra, Cook hit many of the same talking points covered in an interview published by The Hindu earlier today. With 40 minutes of onscreen time, however, the Apple chief was able to speak at length about key initiatives planned for India, including a "holistic" effort to bring all current Apple products and services to the massive Asian market.
During his limited time in the country, Cook said he learned a great deal about India's business and culture, two key elements Apple must understand if it hopes to gain a foothold in the region. Specifically, Apple's multi-pronged approach involves comprehensive evaluations of government operations, consumer culture, media, services, technical talent and more. This includes investments like a recently announced iOS design and development center in Bengaluru and a Maps development facility in Hyderabad.
He added that cultivating the Indian market is a top-five priority for Apple. There has been concern on Wall Street that Apple faces a tough road ahead in China, a major market Apple itself expects will one day be its largest, prompting speculation that the iPhone maker plans to ratchet up efforts in India. Given Cook's statements, it seems those rumors hold water.
Apple is in ongoing talks with regional wireless carriers, government agencies and corporations over future initiatives in the country. It is eyeing what appears to be an aggressive expansion in hardware, retail sales, internet services and more, but must first arrange appropriate regulatory approvals and private sector partnerships.
There are obstacles standing in the way of progress, however. For instance, Apple has yet to gain approval for importing and selling preowned iPhones, a key strategy in introducing customers to the iOS ecosystem. Indian consumers are used to purchasing low- to mid-tier handsets, meaning iPhone might be a tough sell amid competition from the like of Samsung. Cook voiced his optimism in the process, adding that Apple's lineup will appeal to both current and future buyers.
A clip of the interview was posted to YouTube today.
Other themes were discussed, like whether Apple would consider modifying its brand, pricing or devices to better fit Indian culture. Chandra asked if Cook would consider releasing an iPhone designed specifically for India, for example.
Cook believes Apple's brand identity -- a California tech company with global reach -- is a strong asset, and while that won't change anytime soon, the company is investigating how to better market its products to the Indian demographic. To that end, Apple is working on competitive price tiers for iPhone, a buildout of its internet services ecosystem and the introduction of Apple Store, among other resources, he said.
Cook is expected to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this weekend as his India tour comes to a close.
Comments
All of of this will come back as excellent karma for Apple in the long haul. As usual, Wall Street will wake up to this too late.
(Add: I highly recommend watching the full NDTV interview. If you don't have 40 minutes to spare, at least watch the last 12 mins or so -- really interesting stuff).
Oh it runs much deeper than that. This is about courting software development communities around the world. Lots of free kit and free advice to make sure that their skills are honed on Apple kit.
They will also be looking to reduce their reliance on China, or at least I hope they are.
Interesting tidbit learned from this video. Apple are not investing $25M into Maps in India, but rather as Tim stated "several hundred million dollars."
That super pen is part of keeping people into the ecosystem.
Only thing preventing it last year was probably the inclusion of 3D touch which for a phone, especially the smaller ones, is more useful
and the pen wasn't out yet so it would have made no sense then to include this function.
Considering they had trouble producing enough pens initially, waiting for production kinks to be fixed also made sense.
The Ipad pen is in no way "like the note pen". Not even in the same league and they are certainly not giving it away.
The pen is a lot bigger though which is not practical for a thing like a phone, so wonder if they're going to make a smaller one with a restricted set of features?
Or have the features of the current big one miniaturized and have a V2 big pen with even more functionality (rumored to be able to be used without a phone as input) released in September.
If they keep the mini, I can see also a pro version of it coming out too.