Apple CEO Tim Cook has highlighted the economic impact, the company is having on India, in a meeting with its prime minister as the iPhone maker seeks deeper access to the world’s third-largest smartphone market behind the United States and China.
Cook met with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a business summit in Washington at a time when Apple Inc is targeting the emerging Indian market as a revenue source after its sales in China has slipped.
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Apple has asked the Indian government officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly work in the country. It is seeking permission to open its own retail stores in India where it currently sells iPhones through resellers.
In his meeting with Modi, Cook disclosed that Apple expected its Indian operations to be run completely from renewable energy within the next six months.
Cook reiterated that Apple had generated 740,000 jobs in India through its so-called “app economy” and Indian developers had created nearly 100,000 apps for the App Store.Modi talked with Cook and other U.S. corporate leaders ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump.
Apple, working with contract manufacturer Winstron has began assembling the iPhone SE in Bengaluru from last month. Indian authorities have offered Apple tax concessions for the work with the requirement that more local components be used over time.
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The company is looking to India, after sales in the greater China region, once a major factor in Apple’s rise, fell 14 percent year over year to $10.7 billion in the most recent quarter.Apple has not disclosed how much revenue it has generated in India but said that the sales grew by “strong double digits” in the most recent quarter.
“We have a tonne of energy going into the country on a number of fronts,” Cook told analysts about Apple’s efforts in India during the company’s most recent earnings call. “We believe, particularly now that the 4G infrastructure is going in the country and it’s continuing to be expanded, there is a huge opportunity for Apple there.”
By Premji
