Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., center right, and Deirdre O'Brien, senior vice president of retail at Apple Inc., center left, greet customers during the opening of the new Apple BKC store in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. Cook officially opened Apple Inc.s first company-owned store in India, betting the iPhone makers retail outlets will help accelerate sales growth. “We share your vision of the positive impact technology can make on India’s future — from education and developers to manufacturing and the environment, we’re committed to growing and investing across the country,” Cook tweeted.
Cook met Modi during his visit to India in 2016, and Apple began the assembly of an iPhone model in the country the next year.
Much has changed since. Apple has begun to cut its dependence on China as a trade war between Washington and Beijing intensifies and after Covid battered the world’s biggest iPhone plant in Zhengzhou.
The US tech giant has also leveraged the government’s financial incentives to triple production to more than $7 billion of iPhones in India in the fiscal year that ended in March, Bloomberg News reported previously. India now accounts for roughly 7% of Apple’s global iPhone output, and annual sales in the country have surged to $6 billion.
Cook landed in India Monday and launched Apple’s first official store in the financial hub of Mumbai a day later. On Thursday, he’s expected to open another Apple store in an upscale mall in New Delhi. Cook has met with other Indian officials as well as athletes, a Bollywood actresses, musicians and schoolchildren.
On Wednesday, Modi said it was “an absolute delight to meet” Cook.
“Glad to exchange views on diverse topics and highlight the tech-powered transformations taking place in India,” Modi tweeted.