Comments on: Apple in India: a lost opportunity?

By: tfaulk

tfaulk — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:41:32 +0000

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/13/business/india-apple-cracks-smartphone/index.html

Doh! I think this just turned into you Brian X. Chen “Japan Hates the iPhone” article, Om.

By: Ravindra Parasnis

Ravindra Parasnis — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 02:59:17 +0000

Steve Job hated India as he had suffered bad experience in India during his stay in the earlier part of his life. He, therefore, excluded India from his worldwide plans. Singularly it is the greatest loss to Apple and likewise to India. Hope the new mangement of Apple realizes this and makes amends for mutual benefit.
-Wg Cdr Ravindra Parasnis

By: Sir Kany

Sir Kany — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:26:01 +0000

I could not agree more on Apple’s retail absence in India!!!

Here is a guy who stood in line for 14 hours to buy the iPhone 4 the day it was launched, another 5 hours to buy the first iPad, and to top it up, he never missed buying ANY Apple product since June 29, 2007 (the launch of the original iPhone). Not because the iPhone was a fad, but because it was revolutionary for him and since then every new Apple device made his life only better, an internet in your hand, palm, desk like never before.. What he assumed was his addiction for life, hardly did he know that his decision to move to India from the US in mid 2011 was the antidote to this love disease. Ever since he moved, he hasn’t bought a single Apple product.. Not because he doesn’t need it, but because he doesn’t want to…

That’s the power of an Apple Store!!

By: praful-chowdri

praful-chowdri — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:40:00 +0000

Om, I really liked the intent of your article. There is definitely a perception that Apple is ignoring India. Being an Indian admirer of the Apple experience myself, I too find the Apple approach frustrating. However, thinking as a manager, their strategy makes complete sense to me.
The first major drawback of India as a market is that it is far from homogeneous. People not only have different ideas about what they want to do with their phones, but also speak in several different languages (20+ official, not counting innumerable dialects). From a development aspect, integrating the Apple experience with so many languages is a monstrous task. China in this aspect is a much more simple mass market. In my knowledge the complete apple experience is delivered in very few languages. The market of English speaking Indians who’d use the complete Apple experience is very small (App stores and itunes store is a major revenue source).
Even if there are 26 million smartphone users in India, my optimistic guess of the number of 3G data users is around 2 million. Since 3G spectrum were auctioned at very high rates, it ensured that high data consumption is well beyond the reach of most. In fact, even though Android devices are outselling iOS devices, iOS devices still consume 80+% of mobile data traffic around the world. Apple makes major bucks not only from people buying the phones, but also from what people do with their phones.
The last thing that comes to mind is the legal issue of a foreign retail brand opening Indian stores. Indian regulations require sourcing a large fraction of their sales from within India. If I simplify Apple’s business to hardware, software and support services, India has an economic edge only in software development. The question that comes to mind, is how much does an apple user pay for apple software (iOS and Mac). Since the answer is next to nothing, Apple has no idea how to even begin to start shop in India.
Sorry about writing so many words, I couldn’t make my point with fewer words. Thanks for your patience. :)

By: ColaBlizzard

ColaBlizzard — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:20:04 +0000

No career subsidy => No Apple. Anywhere.
No one is going to pay 50K upfront for a phone. That is why Apple is planning on providing EMI facility in India (or is providing?).

Also, India is a land of Pirated Apps/Music or No Apps (yes, you heard me). Since Apple makes a lot of money from purchases linked to it’s devices (iTunes), it sees a very LOW ROI in India.

By: Swapnonil Mukherjee

Swapnonil Mukherjee — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:00:58 +0000

I think you missed one cruical point. Apple cannot open stores in India even if it qualifies as a single brand retail chain because of the stupid restriction that the “investor has to source 30% of the product value” from small businesses.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-14/news/30627664_1_single-brand-product-retail-trading-single-brand-fdi

Single brand 100% FDI is just dead on arrival as far I am concerned as it would be impossible for a brand like Apple to comply with the regulations as it stands today.

By: Vikram Tayde

Vikram Tayde — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:05:56 +0000

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328043135138604.html

By: Ranga Raj

Ranga Raj — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:45:27 +0000

Another interesting related to this article:
http://qz.com/56259/language-is-the-key-to-winning-indias-mobile-market/

By: GP

GP — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:33:16 +0000

OM – it looks like your article drew a fairly quick response :)

Apple Inc. in recent months has radically overhauled its iPhone operations in the crucial Indian smartphone market, attempting to break Samsung Electronics Co.’s monopoly. WSJ’s Jessica Lessin reports.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328043135138604.html?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

By: as

as — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:14:48 +0000

apple wont do well in India IMO, android with micromaxes is too well entrenched