Apple opens its first retail store in India but customer challenges persist

The reality is that millions of Indian consumers continue to purchase Apple products despite feeling like second-class customers.

 

Apple chief executive Tim Cook opened the first Apple store in India on Tuesday in a significant milestone for the iPhone-maker roughly 25 years after entering the South Asian market. During his India trip, first in years, Cook has planned meetings with prominent business leaders, including Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani and Tata Group’s Natarajan Chandrasekaran, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Apple steps up its battle against Samsung over the luxury smartphone market in Asia’s second-biggest economy.

The US giant’s first official store — and a second retail location is scheduled to open in New Delhi on Thursday — comes at a time when Apple is ramping up its manufacturing drive in India, hoping to turn one of the world’s largest smartphone markets into a key global iPhone assembling hub.

Apple’s iPhones currently assume less than 5 percent of the Indian smartphone market, but the share has grown in recent years as more Indians buy premium handsets. The opening of Apple’s 20,000 square feet store in the Reliance-owned high-end shopping mall in the financial capital Mumbai attracted hundreds of people who queued to see Cook open the glass doors.