After seeing considerable success in metros and large cities in India, Apple is now taking aim at smaller cities and towns in order to fuel its objective of over 30% annual growth in the country and a total revenue from India of $1 billion by the end of 2013.
The Economic Times reports that Apple India’s executives revealed the new strategy on Monday evening at a meeting attended by 20 CEOs and senior executives of large scale electronic retailers such as Croma, Reliance Retail, The Mobile Store, Planet M Retail, UniverCell and Spice. Apple hopes to create a ripple in these smaller markets by setting up 100 exclusive franchise-run stores.
While speaking to ET, an unnamed retail executive who attended the meeting stated that it would be tough to set up Apple franchise stores in smaller cities and towns especially taking into account Apple’s mandatory standards for setting up such stores. However, the executive also stated that the meeting showed that Apple was taking India seriously while revealing that the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C were not discussed at the meeting.
According to ET, 90% of Apple sales in India come from metros and large cities. The company has seen spectacular growth over the last couple of years on the back of retail schemes that include EMIs and exchange offers. Apple’s revenues in India jumped by 223% in 2011-12 to Rs. 2,003 crores. These numbers still pale in comparison to Samsung that holds a grip on 36% of the Indian mobile market but Apple will hope to challenge the Korean company by targeting not just the affluent in metros but also those in smaller cities and towns.
Source: The Economic Times