It’s possible Apple won’t have a choice if they want to sell phones in India. India is a huge and growing market, I’m not sure Apple can afford to give that up...
Apple's FY2019 revenue in India was ₹10,538.3 crore ($1.50 billion),[1] which is 0.58% of its global revenue of $260.17 billion.[2] India has a growing smartphone market, but it does not yet have a large market for Apple products.
I don't know, the growing wealth is still a good way off from becoming a ground for Apple to become very popular. Especially since the market has been heavily invested in Android devices due to the pricing disparity, it's a big jump and likely not one that can be alleviated simply by waiving some of the extra costs by manufacturing locally.
The most popular phones sold in India are low-midrange devices in the USD $80-400 range. It'll take quite a push from both the public and Apple to bring sentiment to a situation where Apple products have appeal. As it stands I'm not sure the demand will ever be there.
Actually Apple's market share in India is minuscule due to pricing effects, and they don't anticipate selling all that much in India for the foreseeable future
I beg to differ. They started manufacturing Apple phones in India and it has become a lot cheaper now. This is a solid move from Apple's side mind you.
I’m not sure Apple cares much about the market in India and would pull out of India before opening up the App Store. This won’t be popular.
I know plenty of my Indian colleagues who buy and bring home Apple devices for their friends and family. People will just start smuggling the devices in if they have to.
It doesn't work like that. iPhones weren't sold officially in Argentina for many years, but still there are many local iOS apps. There are many iPhones and most importantly, the wealthiest people generally have iPhones.
