Apple in early talks to sell iPhone in Iran, report says
Almost one year after the U.S. began to loosen sanctions on exports to Iran, Apple is reportedly in early stage talks with distributors to start official sales of its products in the country.
According to people familiar with the matter, senior Apple executives are courting prospective Iranian distributors at the company's headquarters in London, paving the way for an official reseller network in the Middle East country, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Apple's entry into Iran is contingent on future diplomatic relations, but the company is making preparations in case sanctions lift, sources said. The report notes other Western businesses are doing the same, but many of those interested in getting in early are based out of Europe, not America.
As for Apple, sources expected the company to rely on so-called "premium resellers" in its Iranian operations, not flagship Apple Stores. The business model would take after franchise-style outlets that deal only in Apple products, a strategy used in certain areas of Europe and Asia.
A move into Iran would not be unprecedented, at least in the smartphone sector, as a number of big-name Asian corporations are already selling their wares and have become well entrenched in the region.
In August of 2013, Apple announced it would begin selling products to customers who planned to take the devices into Iran. At the time, the U.S. government had just lifted an export ban imposed as a result of economic sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program. The Obama administration reportedly eased restrictions of high-tech electronics as they could help citizen protestors disrupt the Iranian regime.
Like many countries, Iran has an appetite for Apple devices. A report in 2013 noted business was booming for banned Apple products, with devices being funneled in through underground trade routes for massive profits.
According to people familiar with the matter, senior Apple executives are courting prospective Iranian distributors at the company's headquarters in London, paving the way for an official reseller network in the Middle East country, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Apple's entry into Iran is contingent on future diplomatic relations, but the company is making preparations in case sanctions lift, sources said. The report notes other Western businesses are doing the same, but many of those interested in getting in early are based out of Europe, not America.
As for Apple, sources expected the company to rely on so-called "premium resellers" in its Iranian operations, not flagship Apple Stores. The business model would take after franchise-style outlets that deal only in Apple products, a strategy used in certain areas of Europe and Asia.
A move into Iran would not be unprecedented, at least in the smartphone sector, as a number of big-name Asian corporations are already selling their wares and have become well entrenched in the region.
In August of 2013, Apple announced it would begin selling products to customers who planned to take the devices into Iran. At the time, the U.S. government had just lifted an export ban imposed as a result of economic sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program. The Obama administration reportedly eased restrictions of high-tech electronics as they could help citizen protestors disrupt the Iranian regime.
Like many countries, Iran has an appetite for Apple devices. A report in 2013 noted business was booming for banned Apple products, with devices being funneled in through underground trade routes for massive profits.
Comments
Yeah. But it isn't Apples problem. It would actually be a shame if Apple fixed the problem and not the government.
Good. These sactions are horse-shit. Iranians should be able to easily buy an enjoy Apple products also at retail cost.
I didn't mean to suggest it was Apple's business at all. My point would be more along the lines of:
New communications media by themselves can form bonds, as can the media's packages, for example books in the 17th century.
The "work" consists in what we say in or on the new media. And i'm only talking about what happens between ordinary people. Recent history shows that the cell phone is the most powerful instrument of change yet to be invented, maybe moreso than TV or the printing press.
Governments are a problem, I agree.
I've often thought Cuba would have come around a lot sooner with more contact not less.
Recent history shows that the cell phone is the most powerful instrument of change yet to be invented, maybe moreso than TV or the printing press.
They already have Android, and Nokias in Iran. Google Play worked in Iran for free apps, which is more than Google in China. They have the Internet and cell phones too. In fact, they're one of the countries that have more cell phones than people.
At the same time, their cell and Internet service is heavily censored, monitored, and has shut down in periods of unrest. It's not like books where you have to burn them. Communication infrastructure is all centralized, you can pull the plug instantly.
Cell phones aren't the major pain point of the sanctions. It's money, oil, and airplane parts, far more critical infrastructure items than an iPhone.
And Iranian college students should be free to post whatever they want on the Internet without being harassed, arrested, or black bagged.
Oh, wait....
And Iranian college students should be free to post whatever they want on the Internet without being harassed, arrested, or black bagged.
Oh, wait....
Uh, no disagreement there. But this thread was about specific topic, which I commented on.
I can see this is going to be a bit difficult. I always assume people have read their Marshall McLuhan, and I always get in trouble for it.
No bond will be formed between Americans and Iranians over Nokias, Android, or Google. But a bond will be formed between them if there's an iPhone in between them. From the point of view of the media ecologist, the psychology of the masses is the most important piece of infrastructure there is, and that derives from the media mix at any given time. The iPhone is a statement, an advertisement, of American technical humanism. Finally, after all the crap cars and military hardware that the US has foisted upon the world, finally here is something every aspiring human on earth can relate to, even the perfectionist Japanese. Thus, bond formed. It helps that it's your pocket broadcasting station and main means of self-expression.
A related example. Fiat and GM can flood your country with their inferior cars, and you'll use them like utilities and throw them away. Then Mercedes-Benz can come in with their amazing four-cylinder diesels that run for 400,000 miles, and you begin to see that there's a very right way to make automobiles, and you keep one, change the oil yourself, and tell your son to go to school and learn auto engineering the right way. You bond with Germans through their work, their products.
The message of the pocket communicator is that governments are becoming marginal, just as the printed book taught that the Church hierarchy was marginal. It's taken 500 years to prove that, though.
Wow that's deep ...
"U.S. intelligence agency officials interviewed by The New York Times in March 2012 said they continued to assess that Iran had not restarted its weaponization program, which the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate said Iran had discontinued in 2003" (wikipedia, NYT "U.S. Faces a Tricky Task in Assessment of Data on Iran", March 17, 2012)
While many of you see politics, I like to see the brighter side of things.
One more market in which Samsung will be marginalized.
I can see the headline now "Cubans line up for iPhone just like they do for everything else"
I thought that was Coca-Cola.
"I can see this is going to be a bit difficult. I always assume people have read their Marshall McLuhan, and I always get in trouble for it."
Great opening, Flaneur. Start out with a heavy dollop of condescension to your intended readers, then pontificate over the merits of expensive German luxury cars relative to middle-class vehicles made elsewhere. Most Iranian citizens have already "bonded" with western-made products; the problem there is with the maniacal, sub-human religious establishment. No one takes McLuhan seriously these days.
Good; expanding markets and communicating with everyone is totally in the United States (and Iranian) interests.
I hope this is some kind of hoax. I can't believe Tim Cook would sanction trading with Iran, a country run by religious fanatics that executes people for being gay.
Best way to erode a country like that is to expose them to the rest of the world. Keep building and supporting the rest of the Iranian people beyond their government. We were far more than Bush/Cheney during Bush/Cheney right?
iPhones available in Saudi Arabia. At least Iran has co-ed snow ski resorts....