 "Apple CEO Tim Cook")
Apple chief executive Tim Cook’s maiden India voyage has begun at 11:45 pm on Tuesday night when his private jet landed in Mumbai. Cook’s visit has been shrouded in utmost secrecy, prompting speculation that Apple would yet again push for selling refurbished devices in India and was here to sweet talk PM Modi.
As time passes, it’s becoming clear that Cook’s visit to India is a strategic business meet and he will be engaging with several business leaders and politicians. High on the agenda for Cook is to woo the telecom service providers that will help Apple to sell more of its high end smartphones to customers.
In the US, unlike India, majority of iPhone sales happen on the back of carriers. However they provide the crucial link in India to get to customers who will pay for data usage that is necessary in smartphones. The CEO of India’s largest telecom network Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal, is likely to meet Cook on Friday, while meetings with Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood and even Reliance Jio is possible.
Cook had himself said that the onset of fast 4G networks in India will boost sales of the iPhone in India. Reliance Jio and Airtel have built the country’s largest data networks in addition to having a massive physical presence that could help Apple with distribution.
“LTE rollout in India just really began this year, and so we'll begin to see some really good networks coming on in India. That will unleash the power and capability of the iPhone in a way that an older network, a 2.5G, or even some 3G networks, would not do," Cook had said in a call to investors last month.
Apart from meeting with heads of leading telcos, Cook is expected to meet Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Tata Consultancy Services CEO N Chandrasekaran. While in Mumbai, he could also meet with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
On the second leg of his journey, Tim Cook is expected to land in Telangana where he has setup meetings with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and IT minister KT Rama Rao. Apple has already announced the setting up of its maps development centre Hyderabad, home to India’s National Remote Sensing Centre, a hub for GIS technical talent. Cook is likely to visit the Apple site which will be ready by early 2017.
Delhi will be Cook’s next stop where he is expected to meet Airtel CEO Sunil Mittal on Friday and has a meeting scheduled with PM Modi on saturday according to sources in the PMO.
He will also announce setting up of Apple stores, which they have applied license for and the government is keen to give clearance. “I think as quickly as we can give them the clearance, which should be really quick and fast,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, in an interview with CNBC-TV18.
Discussions over granting Apple a license to operate single-brand retail stores will be on, seeking a waiver of the 30 per cent local content clause.
Moreover, as is common in such business meetings with the PM, Cook could push the company’s agenda for selling refurbished devices in the country while the PM urges Apple to begin manufacturing its devices locally and boosting the ‘Make in India’ mission.
The missing Bengaluru link
It isn’t clear whether Cook’s visit to India will see him coming to Bengaluru, the technology capital of India, and the fast emerging Silicon Valley of the East. While most reports seem to suggest he has given the city a pass, Kant of NITI Aayog, said that Cook will meet a number of startups in Bengaluru.
Moreover, rumours of Apple setting up an accelerator in India have been doing the rounds too, and while nothing can be ascertained for sure, the thing that is clear is that Cook is looking to woo developers in India. From setting up a development centre in Hyderabad, to meeting entrepreneurs in Bengaluru, the company is trying to tap India’s vast developer community to build apps for iOS and OSX platforms.
May 20: Delhi - Meeting with Airtel CEO Sunil Mittal
May 21: Delhi - Meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi
