Apple is planning to unveil its iOS App Design and Maps Development Centre along with a startup accelerator program for iOS developers in India.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the iPhone maker has set its focus on the sub-continent, given its huge potential for smartphone reseller market and its growing population comprising 1.25 billion people.
With the company's iPhone sales declining in recent times, Apple is too keen on investing in a brand retail stores in the country.
However, its recent plans to import or sell used iPhones in India was blatantly turned down by the government in the wake of environmental complaints from Samsung, Micromax, and other domestic phone makers in the country.
Vishal Tripathi, a research director at Gartner India, has however sounded positive about Apple's business prospects in the country:
"Mr. Cook is certainly going to come with an agenda. High on that list is permission to open Apple Stores in India, bring up the closed chapter of importing and selling refurbished phones in the country and also explore what's in it for Apple if it brings assembly and manufacturing to the country."
Meanwhile, the Cupertino tech giant is looking at various options to acquire company-owned stores by the end of 2017, which will be spread across a massive 10,000sqft area in the high street locations of Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai.
The country is expected to boost the iPhone sales in billions within the span of next five years as India was the only country to show 56% surplus sales in the first quarter of 2016, despite the company witnessing an alarming slowdown in iPhone sales in the US, China, and European countries.
Here is what Apple CEO Tim Cook said about Apple's business prospects in the country:
I'm encouraged by the results that we're beginning to see there and believe there's a lot, lot more. I view India as where China was maybe seven to ten years ago from that point of view, and I think there's a really great opportunity there. India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world. With the opening of this new facility in Bengaluru, we're giving developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world.
