India to become one of Apple's next market drivers

Tim Cook showcases the newly-launched 'Narendra Modi Mobile App'to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 21, 2016,during his first visit to the nation. [Photo/Modi's Twitter]

Cook also mentioned that localized-manufacturing iphones in India is something that the company looks at, but it's not something that Apple has a plan to do at this point, but it's something that he constantly think about.

According to BBC, during Cook's visit, Apple announced plans to set up first development centre in India in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern state of Telangana, where more than 150 Apple developers will work on Apple Maps.

On May 18, Apple also announced a "design and development accelerator" in Bangalore, the southern city considered to be India's tech and start-up capital.

The company also plans to open three Apple Stores in India by 2017.

Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecom website cctime.com, said that due to the huge population and demand of users shifting from feature phones to smartphones, Indian market will become one of the potential growth points for Apple Inc.

According to Xiang, given the increase in Chinese labor and market costs, shifting manufacturing outside China makes sense for Apple.

"However, for establishing a mature production line requires land for construction, supported-policies from the government, well organized and practical engineers and workers, and all this cannot be created within a short period of time," said Xiang.

According to China Radio International, in the last quarter of 2015, the shipment volume of India's mobile phone market has seen growth go up 15 percent year-on-year, securing 220 million users. The country has surpassed the US as the world's second-largest smartphone market.

"In the next five years, there will be more than a billion smartphones will hit the market," said the media organization.

While the shipment of iPhone has fallen in other markets in the first quarter of this year, it rose 56 percent year-on-year in India.

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