Apple's plans for a massive presence in the Indian market seems to have hit the rocks. First, Apple won’t be able to open retail stores straight away, and now, India has rejected its plan to sell low-cost refurbished iPhones.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple had stated that breaking into India's phone market was an important part of Apple's plans. For this to work though, Apple were going to need to figure out a way to sell devices in a country where the average phone price is around $100 Apple phones aren't that cheap.
The gameplan was to then sell refurbished iPhones — Basically Apple would be easing these phones from the more cash endowed markets, patch them up, back them with a warranty, and sell for a cheaper rate in the Indian market.
But India’s government isn't 'down' with the idea and perceive it as a plan to make India some sort of dumping ground for Apple’s last-gen technology. According to LiveMint, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman told a press conference that “We are not in favour of any company selling used phones in the company, however certified they may be.”
“Dumping” basically refers to selling a product in a foreign market for cheaper than in the domestic market, allowing a more technologically developed country and company to use its manufacturing power to drive out local competition.
Tim Cook has come out to say that this is not the case and said:
“First of all, we would never ‘dump’ anything, this in virtually all countries in the world we have a process by which a phone that’s been used by the first owner or is taken back and made to be new, if you will, and a warranty is placed on that, just like a warranty for a new phone. And it’s sold for a more affordable price and that happens in several countries. What we want to do is do the act of bringing it back to this pristine level, we want to do that in India for the Indian market. We may have to bring in some phones from other markets in order to fuel the supply chain if you will. But the act of bringing them to pristine conditions, we want to do that in this country,”The Indian Government don't see it that way though and on top of that, Apple may not be allowed to open retail stores for some months, either.
Indian law stipulates that to open a branded retail store, that store must be selling 30 percent locally-made products. Apple does not have that.
They have applied for a waiver of that rule until it can get manufacturing up and running in India, but the most recent reports hint that the Indian government won’t be forthcoming.
So it remains to be seen if Apple will be able to keep their promise of have a presence in India for the “next thousand years.”
