Apple has been operating their stores and selling its products in all parts of the world including China which makes it one of the biggest smartphone brands worldwide. This also makes them one of the top smartphone manufacturers and we know Apple products speak for themselves. But it was quite surprising that Apple did not have their first-party online store operating in India which is one of their major markets. One reason was the taxation and FDI ruling of India which made things harder for Apple to operate.
However, they still sold their products but via third-party resellers also known as “Apple Authorized stores”. But we know that the Indian government has relaxed a few norms for outside companies to work and sell in India as long as they are manufacturing in India. Similarly, Apple has also committed to assembling their products in India and even manufacturing them at Foxconn’s Indian factories down the line. This means that rules have been relaxed for them and Apple is all set to make their presence even bigger in India.
Last month, a report revealed that Apple is all set to launch operations of their online store from September of this year. Also, it is known that Apple’s first retail store is being built in India’s financial capital which is Mumbai. However, the report regarding the physical retail store is that it has been delayed to early next year. As for the online store, we have now seen a new leak which shows Apple’s online store already in action.
https://twitter.com/refsrc/status/1300727733601746945?s=20
This tells us that the online store is already being tested before going live and prices of various Apple products are also highlighted. Also, this new leak shows that the company is bringing their premium “Apple Care+” support to India which offers two years of warranty as well as accidental damage protection by paying 10-15% of the product price.
We can also confirm that Apple will be offering 6-month No Cost EMI option for HDFC cardholders as well as 9-month EMI option for CitiBank card holders whereas the EMI options with interest will be available for all the bank cards.
We would have hoped for 12-month No Cost EMI on select Apple products but this is what we have right now and things might change in the coming months.
