Jobs plans rare trip to India to launch new facility?
Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs may make a rare trip to Asia next month to oversee the launch of the company's new R&D center and support facility in Bangalore, India.
According to a report in CIOL IT Unlimited, Jobs is likely to visit the Bangalore site during the first week of April.
The trip will mark a rare visit for Jobs, who is usually conservative in his travel plans, sources told the publication. Those sources said the only Asian country he has visited in his official capacity is Japan.
However, Jobs does have a special affinity to India. In the 1970's, he spent four years as a ?hippie spiritual tourist? visiting holy places in the country, the report notes.
Jobs reportedly admires India as one of the fast growing economies in the world, but Apple has just around four percent market share in the country for its products.
The Bangalore facility, which was revealed by the India press earlier this month, will reportedly hire as many as 1,500 people by the end of this year, and have a total of 3,000 employees by the end of 2007.
Sources had previously told the India Times the facility would be built for Apple by property developer RMZ Corp in its EcoSpace property on the outer ring road near Marathahalli.
RMZ is said to be creating a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility for Apple in the first phase of development, and 1.5 lakh sq ft in the second phase.
Apple's decision to set up the facility in Bangalore was reportedly taken after a rigorous examination of seven cities in India. It's expected to be on the lines of the facility that Dell has established in India.
According to a report in CIOL IT Unlimited, Jobs is likely to visit the Bangalore site during the first week of April.
The trip will mark a rare visit for Jobs, who is usually conservative in his travel plans, sources told the publication. Those sources said the only Asian country he has visited in his official capacity is Japan.
However, Jobs does have a special affinity to India. In the 1970's, he spent four years as a ?hippie spiritual tourist? visiting holy places in the country, the report notes.
Jobs reportedly admires India as one of the fast growing economies in the world, but Apple has just around four percent market share in the country for its products.
The Bangalore facility, which was revealed by the India press earlier this month, will reportedly hire as many as 1,500 people by the end of this year, and have a total of 3,000 employees by the end of 2007.
Sources had previously told the India Times the facility would be built for Apple by property developer RMZ Corp in its EcoSpace property on the outer ring road near Marathahalli.
RMZ is said to be creating a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility for Apple in the first phase of development, and 1.5 lakh sq ft in the second phase.
Apple's decision to set up the facility in Bangalore was reportedly taken after a rigorous examination of seven cities in India. It's expected to be on the lines of the facility that Dell has established in India.
Comments
our latest headache was fixing a massive problem with a travelocity order. maybe it was just our luck, but we kept getting folks with heavy indian accents on the phone, and our problem was very complicated. took SEVEN HOURS on the phone with them over the span of two weeks, mostly because problems kept getting lost or mangled in translation.
mind you, it's no better when i call belkin looking for tech support for one of my products and someone with an almost impenetrable latin accent answers the phone. or some slacker kid who mumbles everything. or someone who WILL NOT stop their conversation with the techie sitting at the desk next to them.
when your only interface with a person you need help from is audio, that audio has to be crystal clear, both in signal, as well as message.
Also, because this is in-house, I would expect the training and English skills to be top notch. This isn't a cheap outsourcing job that's going to the lowest bidder.
First, these people will be Apple employees - a far cry from Dell where a 3rd party handles the calls and wants you off the phone ASAP. I believe Apple will ensure that these people understand that it is their job to take care of the customer.
The other benefit is that Apple may go to 24/7 customer support when this facility is up and running. I think, overall, that things will work out fine as long as Apple maintains their US centers in addition to India.
I'm a Mac fan for the last 20 years but some twist in my economy pushed me to get a job in Dell facility here in Panama. That was last year for around 6 months. One of the first thing I heard was that Apple will open call centers in India as in Panama. Its probable Apple Bangalore call center will work heavily for Europe and take the late calls from U.S when its inactive your domestic hub.
I remember that a huge amount of calls from U.S. came to both call centers late afternoon through morning next day.
Another thing I remember how rude some/few U.S. people was, cause they wanted a U.S. representatives cause some was racist or had a misconception of the people and the place it attended their call. No matter if the represenattive was from U.S. cause here in Panama theres at least 3000 employes and 700 are from U.S.
Maybe that was cause they used PC windows machines and are very different people/comunity than Mac. We all now all the issues a PC windows have. Thats why I never took personally all the insults cause I knew they was frustrated while I thinked on my own that it happened cause they didnt had a Mac.
I just hope that U.S. people understand that Apple its trying to bring a solution with very highly skilled people that have to stand a lot of training and its whilling to help you all.
It doesn't matter from where the person is or how different it accent it can sound, in any case just relax a bit and you will have your trouble fixed.
Originally posted by Xool
I don't have a problem with an overseas call center as long as they don't hire 3rd rate morons.
Nicely put. I can't seem to think of anything to add to that.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
I hope he gets fed up with the language barrier and throws a camera. Or cancels the project, either one is fine.
Umm.. the national language is English. You might be refering to a dialect barrier.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
I hope he gets fed up with the language barrier and throws a camera. Or cancels the project, either one is fine.
The camera throw...always a classic...
Originally posted by plokoonpma
Theres a lot of people in Europe that speak english, that people its the one I'm referred, sry I let it unclear in my last post.
That might be. But that doesn´t mean Apple can take away customer service in our native language.
Originally posted by sandboxface
Umm.. the national language is English. You might be refering to a dialect barrier.
India's national language is Hindi, but with many other regional ones spoken too. English is essentially India's national second language, and tends to be known by the better educated and middle classed rather than everyone. So a language barrier is a concern with an Indian callcentre ... unless of course it's for the projected millions of Indian Mac users in the years to come! 8)
Manufacturing Facility : NO (China has better manufacutring facilty and road, rail, air infrastructure)
Call Centre : may be, yes
How about iTunes India Store?, Bollywood is 2nd only to Hollywood ... hindi songs are popular over one billion population
i see some of the dialects/language songs available in US store, why not iTunes India store ....
one more thing (recently india government allowed single branded items to set their own retail stores) it could be a business trip to roll out Apple store atleast in four metro cities and one indian sillicon valley ie Bangalore.
(New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta)
of course iPods are popular in india like every where else ...