Apple to open first retail store in India next year: Tim Cook

CUPERTINO: Apple will open its first physical retail store in India in 2021, Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Wednesday.

The announcement was made at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Cook said Apple would start selling its products online in the country this year and will open its first Apple-branded store there next year.

“We needed to get approval from the government to go in there ourselves” rather than with a domestic partner, Cook said. “I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us.”

Apple had to seek special approval from the Indian government to open a store without a local partner. Apple’s move into India, the second-largest smartphone market in the world, has been expected for some time, but the announcement of a date was new.

In 2018 India changed the laws that prevented foreign brands from opening single-brand stores in the country. Cook said India had wanted Apple to open its store with a local partner.

Tim Cook told investors he didn’t think Apple would be a “good partner” adding that “We like to do things our way.”

Apple sells its products through third-party stores in India at the moment but its sales lag competitors Samsung and Huawei. The firm is hoping to spur growth in other developing markets like India as demand for Apple products slowing in China.

The meeting also voted on a proposal that the firm should alter how it responds when governments ask it to remove apps from its marketplace. The measure was voted down but received nearly 40 percent of the vote.

Cook also addressed the impact that coronavirus is having on Apple’s operations. The tech giant warned investors early this month that it expected to miss its quarterly earnings estimate because of the outbreak.

Many of the Chinese plants that make components for Apple products such as iPhones and MacBook laptops, have been closed or operating at with limited capacity to reduce the spread of the disease.