sree

asdasd said:

racerhomie3 said:

asdasd said:

racerhomie3 said:

Latko said:

Better hire someone who knows how to sell Ferrari’s in Djibouti

You do realize there are Ferraris in Pakistan,Bangladesh & India. 

Whats the addressable Western middle class in India, 300-400M? 

It’s growing.Thats the most important part. 

Thats also important, but so is the absolute numbers. 300M is what I see. Apple should be able to get. foot hold there.

There are currently 500million+ smarphone users in India (corresponding numbers are 1.3billion in china and 230m in US for comparison).

Unlike other products, smartphones have nothing to do with 'western middle class'. It has turned into a ubiquitous product that can be found in the remotest of places.

Granted there is a pyramid structure to these things, where the cheaper alternatives are owned by the highest numbers, yet apple's penetration is abysmally low. Infact, unlike 5-7yrs ago people don't aspire to get an iphone in anymore in india. Many of my colleagues and friends have moved away from iphones to android alternatives since their quality is significantly improved over the last couple of years. This is frankly worrying for apple, since these are supposed to be people in their target demographic.

Rayz2016 said:

Okay.  

I find this very hard to believe. 

Most people that comment about the buying power of indians have rarely visited india and definitely don't have an understanding of how vast and varied india is.

Just the middle class in india is larger than the population of america. The rich might be small as a percentage of the population, but still the pure numbers will be larger than the population of many countries. The number of people who can easily afford an iphone X india is about the population of australia.

maestro64 said:

sree said:

luxetlibertas said:

sree said:

India does not discriminate for or against apple. It does not allow any used or refurbished goods to be sold in the country (from any company), since such a regulation can and will be misused by the 'global' corporations to dump electronic junk in the country. 

The restriction exists for the sake of the environment, and we don't see any reason why it should be changed.

Do you believe this yourself? Is it better for the environment to give a piece of electronics a second life or to discard it and manufacture a new one? If there is consumer-demand for refurbished devices at considerable prices they're definitely *not* electronic junk.

Ofcourse. It is not a matter of faith, it is fact. Because it is expensive to handle e-waste in the west and many small European countries have run out of landfills, a host of dubious organisations have come up that try to ship e-waste to countries like india where unregulated operations without safety measure are run. Results in a lot of lead/mercury poisoning. This happens despite all of it being illegal. Thankfully they have really cracked down on this stuff since 2010, and so it is highly contained.

Here's an article from 2004 that gives an idea of the situation before:

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-use-me/222679

This is an article from last year, outlining the situation despite the crackdown.

http://www.business-standard.com/content/b2b-manufacturing-industry/us-china-account-for-70-of-india-s-e-waste-imports-116030400460_1.html

Now imagine if they leave a loophole like the one that apple is asking for. It is not going to happen.

Lets all get this straight, it was not like US companies just back up dump truck in india and started to offload this stuff in India. Some Indian company along with its government allowed this to happen. I suspect some Indian entrepreneur thought they were going to cash in on recycling electronic and recover the gold and silver. Then realize India does not have the technology to recover the gold or found out real fast it was too costly. Before they new it the all stack up and they did not know what to do with. I also notice they were attempting to recycle cargo ships and they did not work out real well since no one would buy the poor quality steel India product. China steel is better grade and is mostly made from new iron ore.

Typical, blame everyone else for the short coming of India's government. There is so much corruption in India, that is why government workers make more than most people in the country. 

I really wanted to provide a logical reply, but your post is so not going anywhere, I don't even know what to say. 

So, i'll stick to one point. Ofcourse there are indian business people culpable in sending e-waste over to india. It is a low-cost way of obtaining over 100+ metals that go into electronics. Business folk don't belong to a nation, they are only interested in profits. But, that doesn't mean the people of india or the government want it that way. They do the best they can to limit the situation, just like any other country. If the people or government were capable of stamping these things out a 100% you wouldn't have poverty, mafia, drugs or any other ills anywhere in the world including china and US. China has an equally bad e-waste problem BTW.

And regarding the ships / steel random digression in your post - you should check out which is the largest steel company in the world today - ArcellorMittal owned by Sunil Mittal is three times the second largest company china state-owned Baosteel. I rest my case.

luxetlibertas said:

sree said:

India does not discriminate for or against apple. It does not allow any used or refurbished goods to be sold in the country (from any company), since such a regulation can and will be misused by the 'global' corporations to dump electronic junk in the country. 

The restriction exists for the sake of the environment, and we don't see any reason why it should be changed.

Do you believe this yourself? Is it better for the environment to give a piece of electronics a second life or to discard it and manufacture a new one? If there is consumer-demand for refurbished devices at considerable prices they're definitely *not* electronic junk.

Ofcourse. It is not a matter of faith, it is fact. Because it is expensive to handle e-waste in the west and many small European countries have run out of landfills, a host of dubious organisations have come up that try to ship e-waste to countries like india where unregulated operations without safety measure are run. Results in a lot of lead/mercury poisoning. This happens despite all of it being illegal. Thankfully they have really cracked down on this stuff since 2010, and so it is highly contained.

Here's an article from 2004 that gives an idea of the situation before:

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-use-me/222679

This is an article from last year, outlining the situation despite the crackdown.

http://www.business-standard.com/content/b2b-manufacturing-industry/us-china-account-for-70-of-india-s-e-waste-imports-116030400460_1.html

Now imagine if they leave a loophole like the one that apple is asking for. It is not going to happen.

antoniofonseca said:

In overprotective countries such as India, Brazil and Turkey it is difficult for Apple to push for competitive prices because of over-regulation, high taxes and market restraint measures that in practice only make the consumer's life harder and more expensive.

The taxes and regulations are the same for all the companies. While all the other smartphones are cheaper in india than the US, only the iPhone is costlier. We are all flummoxed how apple is achieving that.

All the android phones that apple is unable to compete against in India are all non-indian companies too (Motorola, Samsumg, Sony, Xaomi, One Plus, Google, Lenovo). How is it that their global prices are the same as their indian prices? while apple devices (especially new releases) easily cost about $200 more in india?