According to a short notice posted on the company’s website , Apple will open its first Indian retail store in Mumbai.
The notice said, “Hello Mumbai.” “We are ready to welcome you aboard the first Indian store. We are eager to see your creativity take you to Apple BKC.” Apple’s website states that the new store will open “coming soon,” but Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment.
The store will be located at Jio World Drive mall. It is 22,000 square feet. A few exterior photos of the new location can be seen in this article .
It’s not surprising that the Mumbai store is being opened in India. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, stated in 2020 Apple would open its first Indian retail store. However, that was delayed by the pandemic . It then got delayed for the first quarter of this. Despite the fact that Apple missed this estimate, it appears that Apple is almost ready to welcome customers into its store.
The company also recently began hiring to open unannounced stores across India. Yes, stores ; the company is hiring at “various places” in India, which may indicate that India will see more retail stores.
Apple has been investing in India more for some time. Apple launched an online store in India in September 2020. It has also manufactured many of its flagship iPhones in India.
Apple plans to open its second India store in New Delhi within the next quarter.
According to recent recruitment posts, Apple has been hiring aggressively for employees in India to work in its stores. After launching its online store in India in 2020 the company had originally planned to open its first retail outlet in India in 2021. However, these plans were halted by COVID.
India, which is currently the second-largest smartphone country in the world, contributes very little to Apple’s bottom line, but the iPhone maker has stated in the past that it is optimistic about the country’s future.
In recent quarters, Apple’s contract manufacturing partners Foxconn (and Wistron) have increased local assembly for iPhones and other Apple gadgets in India. JP Morgan analysts predicted that Apple would increase its manufacturing capacity in India so it could produce 25% of all iPhones produced by 2025, according to a report.
