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To Gain Foothold in India, Apple Plans To Open Stores, Offer Deals All Year Around, and Fix Services: Report (bloomberg.com)
Apple has long struggled to gain market share in India, the world's second largest smartphone market. But now, it apparently plans to change that. Before we get into it, here is some disclaimer: Rumors of Apple's intentions to improve its presence in India are nearly as old as Apple's existence. From Bloomberg: Instead of officially lowering its prices, Apple is in talks with retailers and banks to offer holiday deals all year round, according to people familiar with the plans. Those people say Apple is also asking some individual stores to more than quadruple sales targets, to 40 or 50 iPhones a week, and plans to cut off retailers that consistently fail to hit the mark. Retail sales staff will be trained to teach customers how to use their devices, and Apple intends to overhaul in-store branding and product displays. Executives would conduct daily conference calls with stores to gauge progress.
Apple hopes to start opening stores in India next year and eventually set up three in New Delhi, Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), and Mumbai, according to the people familiar with the company's plans. The government has long required foreign companies opening shops to manufacture 30 percent of their products locally, but it said in January that businesses can reduce that requirement by sourcing more Indian goods for their global operations. Apple now builds some of its India-aimed iPhone SE and 6s models in Bengaluru; it's unclear whether the company plans to take advantage of the revised policy or try to hit the 30 percent mark. The report adds that Apple has India in its mind as it revamps many of its services.
Apple hopes to start opening stores in India next year and eventually set up three in New Delhi, Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), and Mumbai, according to the people familiar with the company's plans. The government has long required foreign companies opening shops to manufacture 30 percent of their products locally, but it said in January that businesses can reduce that requirement by sourcing more Indian goods for their global operations. Apple now builds some of its India-aimed iPhone SE and 6s models in Bengaluru; it's unclear whether the company plans to take advantage of the revised policy or try to hit the 30 percent mark. The report adds that Apple has India in its mind as it revamps many of its services.
Ya know, India is one of those places where people need the stuff they buy first and foremost to accomplish something, not as a fashion statement. It's kinda very "western" to have money to squander on "ohh, shiny!".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Those nerds on The Big Bang Theory are sooo funny! Ha ha.
make your payments, stay in your lane, you're ok? wtf
Because when all you have is $1670 a year (median income), then surely, we can expect everyone to invest a $1000 for the privilege to whore off all their biometric data to a bunch of psychopaths, using a shiny trinket that contains electronics more as a second thought than as a function. --.--
I hope they try, and lose a fuckton of their imaginary money in the process.
Moderators hate us and want us to die. To die! They keep censoring APK and it needs to stop.
whore off all their biometric data to a bunch of psychopaths
Is that something I missed in Apple's quarterly report?
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Did Apple even do market research on why they don't get a big foothold in India?
I'm sure the things they've now come up with were not in the top things to change.
This is a market where even $50 android devices have a hard enough time.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
circling over cairo, watching the roads melt,, the birds have offered, using the flying monkeys as interpreters, to stop whatever they're doing? if the vatican comes clean on the altered boys thing? how does one bargain with gargoyles?
Apple is the largest most valued company in the world, not because they have the best products or most customers, but because they have the most shrewd and aggressive business tactics.
This is a stark contrast in India, a relatively poor country still emerging on the world economy.
It's disgusting to think that this is where Apple set their sights, to sell their luxury phones at $800 -- $200 for hardware and $600 for Apple logotype, and similar pricing.
Apple knows there's a "gotta have it" mentality about their stupid products, and when they start marketing that to a poor population...
American greed and capitalism at its finest.
According to the Americans here in Germany, whose "vlogs" I follow, this is only an American thing, and in most of Europe, people are far less materialistic.
The only people I ever see act like that, in Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg*, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain (so the countries where I was more than a month of my life), are usually the poor immigrant / ghetto type, and even of those, only the sub-group that listens to gangsta rap featuring such "bling" in their videos.
___
* Please do not ever fuckin' write my home country's name with "ou", unless your native language is French. Yes, I know it's what our officials call it, but that's only because they still hold a grudge against German, due to a certain invader. But before him, they held a grudge against French due to a certain other invader, so it's all bullshit anyway. Say "Luxemburg" like we do, since both Luxemburgish and English are Germanic languages.
You are all wrong. As much I want apple to crash and burn, Indians (living in India) love it and consider it as status symbol (dont ask me why, damned if I know) Median income is not a good metric, on average someone IT need to save 2-6 months salary to get new iphone and many are stupid enough to do just that, and we have lot of people in IT.
Like bathing properly, not shitting in the streets, how to not smell, how to not behave like animals, etc.
Once they master not being subhuman vermin, then they can start getting nice things.
But, whatever keeps them locked in that craphole of a country of theirs and out of the rest of the world.
Apple has a marketing problem, they have always sold boutique products to people with money to afford them. Now they enter countries with far less wealthy populations and they have little success. Of course Apple isn't suffering because it has managed nicely selling to people who don't mind the stiff margins Apple sets on its products. Unless Apple starts making really affordable iPhones I don't think they have a chance in places like India.
It's a cultural thing. For centuries, Indians have aspired to have a lot of jewelry. Families pass on these jewelries down the line. Whenever they gather for an Indian wedding or something, you will see them wearing a ton of it. It's a matter of pride for them. Smartphones, as someone pointed out above, is not that. It's a commodity for Indians. Most of them don't see a point in getting the latest iPhone feature. They want a phone to keep in touch with their family and friends, and mostly, to colleagues. Sure, not everyone is cut out with the same cloth. There are more than 1.3 billion people in India. Most of them earn under $1,600 in a year. They buy a phone and put a cover on it, a tempered glass and everything so that it can last for more than at least two years. In general, Indians are also very price sensitive. So it is not uncommon to find a businessman who makes thousands of dollars each month to use an iPhone 5s.
1. The thing takes a biometric scan of your face and/or your fingerprint.
2. Access to that data will be given to everyone at Apple, of course, plus everyone from any three-letter agency and isn't stupid enough to allow them to make it public. Plus they officially said they let app developers access it anyway. So in practice, pretty much everyone who wants.
3. "People" give away that biometric data for a mere "shiny". That is quite whory.
4. A psychopath is a person with no empathy (unless they wilfully enable it, according to modern studies). So not your TV show "psychopath". Although "Dexter" presented it surprisingly well. ... This is particularly hard to explain to Americans without "offending" them, because it is the dominating mindset in the US, at least among the students that are usually used in studies. ... But basically the "normal" behavior and culture of businesses nowadays, is purely psychopathic in nature. Profit is all that matters. Being social and empathetic, treating others well, being fair (even to dicks) and being honest, are all out the window and even actively despised and ridiculed. (In a honest, fair world, there would be no such thing as profit only money you have actually earned. With work done to earn it.)
5. Apple is such a business.
Ergo "people" whore off all their biometric data to a bunch of psychopaths.
I put "people" in quotes, because every time I treat them like actual individuals, I am attacked as if I would threaten their form of existence, and hated. I have come to accept that if they do not want to be individuals, but merely passive-thinking entities of a swarm, where that swarm is the individual, because they are too afraid to have free will and deal with anything themselves, then that is their good right. But then they aren't people anymore, and maybe not even humans. (And just because I know exactly what you are thinking now: No, that does to give anyone the right to treat them badly, or see them as inferior. It's just that that "life"-style is actively harming people who still want to be individual humans, and so we can protect ourselves from their harm. Without causing harm to them, of course, or we would be the evil ones.)
The "problem" with india is that they already have like a gazillion and one deities.
trying to sell them one more in a used apple shape is probably asking a bit much ^_^
On ebay etc will rise dramatically
Crime is a life style for 3/4 population of India, and they see nothing wrong with this.
Ya know, India is one of those places where people need the stuff they buy first and foremost to accomplish something, not as a fashion statement.
While I've never spent time in India I have spent a lot of time working with people from India and in my experience they are no more or less fashion conscious than any other group of people. I've met plenty of Indians who are as vain as any westerners. I don't buy the argument that Indians aren't fashion conscious. The problem is that there are a LOT of poor people in India who don't have vast sums to spend on a luxury smartphone like the ones Apple sells. Indian's have a (probably deserved) reputation for being cheap in the sense of thrifty but that doesn't mean they don't spend money on bling or aren't interested in it.
It's kinda very "western" to have money to squander on "ohh, shiny!".
Hogwash. I've traveled all over the world and there is no culture I've ever seen where there isn't a strong faction of people who squander money on "ohh, shiny". We're just not all that different. How our materialism manifests varies from place to place but it's still omnipresent.
According to the Americans here in Germany, whose "vlogs" I follow, this is only an American thing, and in most of Europe, people are far less materialistic.
The particular manner in which materialism manifests varies from country to country but if you need evidence that Europeans are materialistic one merely has to look at places like Versailles. They have literal freaking palaces and you're going to argue that they don't care about showing off wealth? How many of the major fashion brands are European brands? Paris and Milan are two of the major fashion centers in the world. There are plenty of people in every country on Earth who are materialistic and want to show it off. The only difference is how they go about it.
The only people I ever see act like that, in Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg*, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain (so the countries where I was more than a month of my life), are usually the poor immigrant / ghetto type, and even of those, only the sub-group that listens to gangsta rap featuring such "bling" in their videos.
Showing off wealth comes in many forms. Just because some Europeans use some of the less gauche ones doesn't mean they aren't doing it. If you have a yacht in the harbor in Monaco you're showing off your bling. So is buying a fancy purse or expensive shoes.
Once they have a foothold, of course, they can break services, close stores, and offer deals only at 2:30AM on days ending in W.
Many products crater when the company turns to marketing gimmicks instead of innovation E.g., Nokia was starting to implode when they marketed a wide choice of colors as their new "feature." Many more examples are out there - supply your own, Of course, there are often false starts: I thought Apple was dead when they acquired crap-bling Dr Dre headphones...
It's full of poor people. Not worth it for Apple. Jobs knew India was shit.
Assuming the Iphone is targetted at the top 1%, there are arguably more customers in India than US or EU. Just like Mercedes, etc, Apple doesn't care about low sales numbers as long as they get high profit numbers.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
It's a cultural thing. For centuries, Indians have aspired to have a lot of jewelry..... .
Yes, it's a cultural thing, like the rest of your post. For centuries most westerners have generalised about Indians. Probably more so about Indians than any other culture they don't know much about, because Indian culture is quite different and because India is so big that everyone learns a few assumptions and platitudes about it.
Like the a great philosopher once said:
A measure of a man is which mobile phone he or she chooses. If she chooses the wrong one* then charity work, political views, family values and artistic endeavours are moot, they chose the wrong phone and have therefore condemned us all and should not be considered human.
* Note that apparently the wrong phone stores the finger print / face data in a secure enclave designed never to be able to transmit that data off the phone (and yes I believe that because hackers managed to do a bit of reverse engineering on the software - not the data - that's run in the enclave), 3rd party apps can only access that data with the user's permission, run by a company that has consistently butted heads with law enforcement overreach.
Also the investor/think tank group National Center for Public Policy Research that was asking Apple to give up on their sustainability plans and focus purely on profit were shut down at a shareholder meeting.
Hey Apple isn't perfect, but, you said a lot of stuff that sounds smart but it wrong.
It's turtles all the way down.
On the complete off chance somebody comes back to the archives to read this I was unclear in the above message.
The fingerprint and face data never leaves the secure enclave chip on the phone.
Other health data (heart rate, exercise, etc) is the stuff that can be shared to third party apps only if the user allows it.
It's turtles all the way down.