Apple will open an online store in India to start selling iPhones, which it may begin making locally within the next couple of week.
Selling iPhones it makes in India is Apple’s first big step in competing for market share in a country with rapidly growing smartphone sales.
The website, iPhone Hacks, said the online store would sell the iPhone SE and open around the Hindu holiday Diwali, a five-day celebration that runs in the middle of October.
Apple wants a foothold in India. While smartphone sales are leveling off around the world, India is projected to sell some 750 million handsets by 2020, Cult of Mac reported in March.
Apple holds 2 percent of smartphone market there and has been in talks with the Indian government to remove some of the barriers to entry, that would include the eventual opening of Apple Stores.
Despite not getting tax incentives it had sought, Apple has reportedly partnered with Wistron Corp. to build iPhones at a plant in Bengaluru.
Initial reports suggested it would be the iPhone SE, though Cult of Mac recently reported the Wistron factory would build iPhone 6 and 6s models.
Today’s report by iPhone Hacks said it will be the SE and that Apple’s online store will offer services, like laser engraving and “sell variants of its products that are only available online.”
Apple products are especially pricey to the citizens of Indian, where an iPhone 7 can cost half the average annual salary. But Apple has managed to sell units thanks to discounts and the sale of older model handsets.
About 50 percent of all iPhones in India are purchased online, according to the iPhone Hacks report.
Source: iPhone Hacks
