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Business News/ Companies / People/  Apple’s Tim Cook gets the love Indians are yet to shower on iPhones
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Apple’s Tim Cook gets the love Indians are yet to shower on iPhones

The challenge for Apple is that its products are beyond the reach of many in India

Apple CEO Tim Cook visits the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo:PTIPremium
Apple CEO Tim Cook visits the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo:PTI

Mumbai: Tim Cook is getting the rock star treatment on his first trip to India.

Paparazzi have tailed him since he began the visit Wednesday in the financial capital Mumbai, keeping Cook’s bodyguards busy as the Apple Inc. chief executive officer toured the city’s most famous temple.

“I’m here to learn," was all Cook said when ambushed by reporters who had waited hours in sweltering heat outside the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai.

He flew to Hyderabad on Thursday, opening a development center with a prominent politician, before jetting off to another city to watch a cricket match. Just about every step has has been reported, photographed and tweeted.

Cook attended a dinner in Mumbai hosted by Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan, spent time with Anant Ambani—son of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani—and met Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, whose sprawling conglomerate includes stores selling iPhones. He also met the top brass for Vodafone Group Plc in India.

Cook is expected in New Delhi on Friday and may meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The administration is currently reviewing Apple’s application to open retail stores in Asia’s third-largest economy.

As China’s market becomes more saturated and people across the globe upgrade their smartphones less frequently, Apple, Samsung Electronics Co. and other vendors are keen to sell to India’s middle class, which is projected to quadruple to 200 million by 2020.

The challenge for Apple is that its products are beyond the reach of many in India, where most people live on less than $3.10 a day, according to World Bank data.

The nation is a market where most phones are bought outright and aren’t subsidized by carriers through calling plans. Apple doesn’t feature in the top 10 in terms of smartphone market share in the South Asian nation, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Simon Chan.

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Published: 20 May 2016, 02:26 PM IST
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