India may soon have its own Apple run and owned stores as the company has filed an application with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to open single brand retail stores and enter the e-commerce segment.
This has been confirmed by DIPP secretary Amitabh Kant.
Apple at present Apple does not have any wholly-owned stores in the country and has relied on selling its products via distributors and authorised resellers.
There are stores run by "authorised premium resellers" that recreate a similar ambience and customer experience as that in Apple-branded stores.
This move comes after the government relaxed regulations related to the single brand retailing FDI policy, which allows 100 per cent investment in the sector.
Apple has 481 retail stores in 18 countries, including the UK, US, China and Germany.
Retail via its official online store is available in 39 countries.
Under Steve Job's vision, the Cupertino-based company became committed to providing customers with a fine tuned retail experience to drive sales and has since been extremely selective about resellers and shown a preference for self-run stores.
BW Reporters
Simar Singh is one of the youngest members of the BW team. A fresh graduate from IIMC, she also holds a degree in political science from LSR. She enjoys covering power, startups, lifestyle and a little bit of tech.
