After a long journey of five days, Apple CEO Tim Cook Left India with a note that he can’t wait to return to the country.
Cook’s visit coincides with the completion of 25 years of the iPhone maker’s presence in India. Cook reached India on Monday. began with the tour launch After the first official Apple Store in Mumbai on April 18, a Second 20 April in the national capital.
“What an amazing week in India. Thank you to our teams across the country. Can’t wait to get back,” Cook tweeted.
The company is selling products in India through exclusive Apple Premium Reseller (APR) stores, large format retail chains like Reliance Digital, Croma, etc., multi-brand retail stores and e-commerce platforms.
Apple has over 100 APR stores in India.
One of the APR stores was located in the Select Citywalk mall, which had to be moved to a nearby mall to make way for it. Apple Store,
Apple began making iPhones in India in 2017 with the low-cost iPhone SE tailored to the needs of the local market, following Cook’s last visit in 2016. The company now exports “Made in India” iPhones.
Industry sources estimate Apple to export iPhones in the range of USD 5-5.5 billion in the just-concluded financial year 2022-23.
The Bharti Group on Friday said that on the last day of his visit to India, the Apple CEO met Bharti Group founder and chairman Sunil Mittal and the two reaffirmed their commitment to work more closely in India and Africa.
“Tim Cook and Sunil Bharti Mittal held an hour-long meeting this morning. Expressing their satisfaction at the long-standing relationship between Apple and Airtel, (they) committed to working more closely in the Indian and African markets.” Confirmed,” Bharti Group said in a statement.
On the first day, Cook went to Antilla, the home of richest Indian Mukesh Ambani, for a business meeting and is said to have met other top industrialists including Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran.
After opening the first official store in Mumbai, Cook arrived in the national capital on the second leg of the tour on Wednesday.
Before inaugurating the Apple Store in Saket, he toured the mesmerizing artsy lanes of the Lodhi art district.
“Delhi’s Lodhi Art District is a remarkable public space. Congratulations to St+Art India Foundation and so many wonderful artists for capturing Indian life so powerfully. And thank you to Dattaraj Naik for showing me that you can do this on the iPad.” How do you design your murals,” the 62-year-old Cook tweeted.
The entire area is lined with beautiful mural paintings on the walls of the buildings for which the city is famous.
Cook calls on PM during his visit to Delhi Narendra Modi as the iPhone maker looks to invest more in the world’s second largest smartphone market.
According to government sources, the iPhone maker is likely to double the employment base of its contract manufacturers in India to around 2 lakh soon.
Looking to replicate what China did for Apple’s business over the past 15 years, the tech giant is eyeing the huge market of India, which is growing the middle class with increased sales of power, and potentially This could make it a home base for the production of millions of Apple devices.
Cook met Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajiv Chandrasekhar during his visit.
According to sources, Cook has sought government support to expand its components supplier base in India.
The Apple CEO is also understood to have discussed manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru and an app design and development accelerator with the two ministers.
Like in 2016, Cook again took out time to watch IPL cricket matches. He spent his evening watching an IPL cricket match in Delhi with Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla and others. Cook had watched an IPL cricket match with Shukla in Kanpur during his previous visit.
“Thank you so much for an unforgettable evening!” Cook retweeted Ahuja’s tweet in which he had shared his picture.
On the last day of his visit, Cook visited some app developers to experience their technology.
“It’s great to see so many developers across India pursuing their passion and sharing their ideas with users around the world. I love Hitwicket, India’s top rated cricket app, Experiment, an AR-based yoga app And it was a pleasure to meet Lookup. “An easy-to-use dictionary app,” Cook tweeted.
She also shared her experience of “Rangoli and Kolam Designs” made with flower petals, rice and colored sand, which was captured on iPhone.