India delays iPad and Mac import limits until October 31

AppleInsider

Apple has been given a reprieve from halting imports of MacBooks and iPads into India, after the government delayed the implementation of new limits by three months.

Chennai, India [Unsplash/Karl Janisse]

On Thursday, major device vendors including Apple, Dell, HP, and Samsung had to deal with new rules designed to limit the import of products that could be produced locally in India. By Friday, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the rules won't actually come into effect for three months.

Deputy IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday that there will be a "transition period" before the new policy is implemented, reports TechCrunch. During Thursday's introduction of the rules, the Ministry of Commerce had said the restrictions were being implemented immediately.

Under the Thursday order, device vendors had to apply for licenses to import hardware into India, such as the iPad or MacBook Pro for Apple. While hardware producers were expecting some form of import measures, the sudden introduction and initial implementation caught the companies off-guard and forced them to halt imports straight away.

The suddenness also has the potential to heavily impact sales during a typically lucrative back-to-school shopping period and Diwali seasonal sales.

The now-delayed import rules will instead come into effect on October 31, giving Apple and other major importers more time to prepare. This could take the form of increasing local hardware production, which Apple has gradually done in the country for some of its product lines.

"It is the government's objective to ensure trusted hardware and systems, reduce import dependence and increase domestic manufacturing of this category of products," Chandrasekhar tweeted. "It is about regulating imports to ensure trusted and verifiable systems and ensuring India tech ecosystem uses trusted and verified systems only that are imported and/or domestically manufactured trusted systems/products."

There was also a clarification for travelers, with the restrictions not being applied to passengers carrying affected hardware as part of their luggage.

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mayfly

Subversion of market forces by government regulation never works in the long term. It inevitably results in black and grey markets offering products either at lower prices, or due to shortages caused by regulations.

Alex_V

mayfly said:
Subversion of market forces by government regulation never works in the long term. It inevitably results in black and grey markets offering products either at lower prices, or due to shortages caused by regulations.

Not in India. Still, all markets are regulated by governments. 

mayfly

Alex_V said:

mayfly said:
Subversion of market forces by government regulation never works in the long term. It inevitably results in black and grey markets offering products either at lower prices, or due to shortages caused by regulations.

Not in India. Still, all markets are regulated by governments. 

Perhaps I should have said private sector commerce, then.

wood1208

What about Windows servers/desktop/laptop computers imported from China ?

chasm

wood1208 said:

What about Windows servers/desktop/laptop computers imported from China ?

Yes, all manufacturers who make devices covered by the restriction were affected by this rollout shitshow.

FTA: “On Thursday, major device vendors including Apple, Dell, HP, and Samsung had to deal with new rules designed to limit the import of products that could be produced locally in India.”

darkvader

The US should have put this sort of thing in place decades ago.

If we had, we wouldn't be talking about how to restart high tech manufacturing in this country, because it would never have left.  Apple might have still actually made computers, instead of making nothing at all.  And Apple is one of the worst offenders, they don't build anything, it's all outsourced, most of it to fascist China.

danox

darkvader said:

The US should have put this sort of thing in place decades ago.

If we had, we wouldn't be talking about how to restart high tech manufacturing in this country, because it would never have left.  Apple might have still actually made computers, instead of making nothing at all.  And Apple is one of the worst offenders, they don't build anything, it's all outsourced, most of it to fascist China.

Half the USA is rabid anti-union, it is a traditional American pastime to look for rock-bottom labor, with no regards to about the long term future, whether it is a move to right to work South, cartel Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam or China and India. I still hope that one of the more successful American companies will change that cultural trend leading by example, we still have time to avoid the fate of the UK.

Germany, in comparison to the UK, still has strong unions that put up a fight, when a big multinational German company wants to move core jobs out of the country, probably why they still make a lot of things in country when compared to the UK, the same applies to South Korea and Japan. 

Also note only the English-speaking countries allow foreign nationals to buy land and houses within their country, which is contributing to that affordability gap in each of the English-speaking countries for the natives (and I don’t mean  American Indian), which goes hand-in-hand with crushing unions at every opportunity, all five of the English-speaking countries, UK, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand participate in the evil too.

waveparticle

darkvader said:

The US should have put this sort of thing in place decades ago.

If we had, we wouldn't be talking about how to restart high tech manufacturing in this country, because it would never have left.  Apple might have still actually made computers, instead of making nothing at all.  And Apple is one of the worst offenders, they don't build anything, it's all outsourced, most of it to fascist China.

How old are you? Do you know AAPL can be bought for .37 on Sep 1, 2003 in todays price? That is a factor of at least 500. What is the significance of this number? That means Apple is only worth 6 billion US dollars in 2003! In other words, Apple was only an insignificant US company. Apple was fighting Wintel duopoly for its survival. How can such a small company affect US? Then Jobs invented the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. The iPhone was eagerly accepted worldwide. Apple was saved by the world not US! And you blame Apple for all the problems in US? Go away!