Apple has postponed its plans to start company-owned online store in India from the January-March quarter to August-September. The company is seeking more time to complete the back-end work and wants to roll it around a high sales period to coincide with the launch of new iPhones before the festive season. Back-end work like logistics and supply chain are still not sorted to meet global standards.
According to two senior executives, Apple CEO Tim Cook is going to make his second India visit around June-July to take stock of the India business, including manufacturing expansion, exports from the country and roll out of both company-owned online and brick-and mortar Apple stores.
Cook is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His maiden India visit was in 2016.
“Since over 30% of iPhone sales in India is generated from e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon, the company wants to time the India launch around launch of new iPhones,” one of the executives said.
Apple’s distribution centre near Mumbai operated by global logistics partner DB Schenker will act as a hub for the company’s online store. The brick-and-mortar Apple Store will, however, come up next year since it takes over 10-12 months to set up such a store.
Apple will set up its first Apple Store in Mumbai followed by another one in Delhi-NCR, the executives said.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.
