As it speeds up preparations to enhance local production in a boost to the government's "Make in India" initiative, Apple on Wednesday officially lifted the curtains off its long-awaited own branded retail store in India.

At Jio World Drive Mall in Mumbai, Apple unveiled the barricade of its first brick-and-mortar store there, officially announcing the impending debut of Apple BKC.

The Apple BKC creative features vibrant renditions of the decals along with various Apple products and services that will be available for our consumers to discover, and it is inspired by the famous "Kaali Peeli" cab art that is distinctive to Bombay.

The creative for the store features a bright welcome to people passing by with the classic Apple greeting, "Hello Mumbai".

"To celebrate the opening of the new store, visitors can download the new Apple BKC wallpaper and move to the sounds of Mumbai with a specially curated playlist on Apple Music," said the company.

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The company is all set to open the gates of the India retail store to the public this month, a date has not been confirmed yet.

Apple will also possibly launch a retail store in New Delhi at a later date.

The tech giant has set another all-time revenue record for the India market, along with quarterly records in Brazil and India.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said recently that looking at the business in India, "We set a quarterly revenue record and grew very strong double digits year over year and so we feel very good about how we performed".

"That's despite the headwinds that we talked about. India is a hugely exciting market for us and a major focus. We brought the online store there in 2020. We will soon bring Apple Retail there," Cook announced in February.

He said that Apple actually did fairly well through the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

"That's the reason why we are investing thereby bringing retail there, bringing the online store there and putting out a significant amount of energy there. I'm very bullish on India," the CEO added.

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According to Prabhu Ram, Head - Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research, “The Apple-owned flagship stores are a key pillar in Apple India’s playbook to win in a strategic growth market. A stream of favourable tailwinds back the launch of the Apple-owned flagship retail stores in India. The premium smartphone segment in India continues to be immune to macro-economic pressures, and has been growing in double digits.”

The US tech giant this year reshuffled the management of its international businesses to put a bigger focus on India, where online sales helped it report record revenue in the quarter to December. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has said Apple is putting “a lot of emphasis on the market” and compared the current state of its work in India to its early years in China.

Apple has also made quiet but steady efforts to shift more production away from China to countries including India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s local manufacturing push, financial incentives and India’s relatively cheaper labour have led its key Taiwanese supplier partners Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp. to ramp up iPhone production in the country.

Apple sold two million iPhones in India in the holiday quarter (Q4) of 2022, registering 18 percent growth (quarter-on-quarter) for its flagship device.

The India market share of iPhones reached 5.5 percent for 2022, an 11 percent growth (year-on-year).

(With agency inputs)

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First Published:Apr 5, 2023 11:44 AM IST