iPhone maker seeks deeper access to the world’s third-largest smartphone market behind the United States (US) and China
Words: FWD Media Images: Various sources
Prime Minister NarendraModi’s first meeting with President Donald Trump aimed at improving ties and moving past differences over climate change. Meeting the top American executives, PM said that India is a business-friendly country of “minimum government.” The meeting included the heads of some of the top US technology companies, including Google’s SundarPichai, SatyaNadella of Microsoft and ShantanuNarayen from Adobe Systems, all of whom are Indian American. Also present were Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Talking to PM, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company is pretty much eager to expand its business in India. The aim is to help make their products cheaper and affordable in the country and also make way for new jobs in India. The US-based firm has indicated plans to put up manufacturing lines in India this year. In the Budget 2017-18, a concessional SAD of 2 per cent was imposed on populated Printed Circuit Boards for the manufacture of mobile phones. With sales tapering in the US and China, Apple is eyeing India — the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world — and looking to set up a local manufacturing unit to cut costs. It, however, does not make devices on its own and does it through contract manufacturers.
According to some sources, during the briefing, Apple CEO Tim Cook updated some important statistics to the Prime Minister Modi that ‘presently there are more than 740,000 app economy jobs created, which also depend on the iOS platform. Indian app developers have created more than 100,000 apps for the App Store, which is a remarkable 57 per cent in the year 2016.