It’s pretty interesting to see a company like Apple ignoring such a jumbo Indian market. I was surprise to see that they don’t update their Indian catalogue store. Prices mentioned on their website are ridiculously higher than retail price in India. This scares off potential customers and significantly hurts their market in India. More interestingly, some links on their site return 404 – Page not found errors.
I don’t know about the software, but India is still a significantly large market for computer hardware. I see no shortage of Apple fanboys (or girls) here in India. There are so many people here in India waiting for a decent online music store like iTunes. It would have been better for both Apple and their consumers, if they upgrade Indian Catalogue store to a full-fledge online store where we can purchase Apple products online. I wonder when we Indians will get our hands on the Jesus Phone (iPhone)
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wrote, on August 9th, 2007
India may have a big computer, but If we compare with US it is nothing. Few days ago I was reading somewhere about online advertising markets. Indian online adversing market was around 5% of US.
Indian market look bigger, but purchasing power of Indian market is very less.
wrote, on August 9th, 2007
I have to agree with you on this one thilak.. Apple really is ignoring India.. Hopefully Apple does something about this and India comes alive on its radar..
keeping my fingers crossed..!~
wrote, on August 9th, 2007
I heard that Apple is planning to close its stores in India due to loss.
wrote, on August 10th, 2007
Maybe is not a apple thing…
In Portugal who is responsable for the apple.com.pt is a company called Apple IMC Portugal… and they don’t give a **** of it…
wrote, on August 10th, 2007
Geez, you’re right! Some of those prices are outrageous! For example, the new iMac starts at $1,199, or about 54,000 rupees. But the site sets the starting price of an iMac at ~$1499 — the price of the most expensive version. Some of the other prices on there are equally ridiculous.
wrote, on August 11th, 2007
Apple closed down it’s operations in india .. It never gained profit in the indian market.
wrote, on August 19th, 2007
Dear Sir,
Please give me a Add Apple store in india (mumbai)
wrote, on August 22nd, 2007
[...] Unlike Apple, Microsoft isn’t taking Indian software market lightly. They have not only started an online store for purchasing legitimate software at reduced prices, but they’ve along come up with a unique service called Dial-a-Software which lets you purchase software over phone and get it delivered to your door steps. [...]
wrote, on October 1st, 2007
May be Apple is ignoring India because of its very strong Microsoft population. Apple is a huge hit with certain industries such as Advertising. May be jobs is cooking up a marketing strategy to capture the indian market (including the microsoft users).
They have to work out special prices exclusively for the Indian market or else they may not be able to reach the middle class audience.
wrote, on October 22nd, 2007
Apple will never have a huge presence in India unless it decides to beat the **** out of Microsoft in the Indian market for that, Apple has to start manufacturing machines in India, the difference in the prices is due to the shipping, customs and the profit margin which inflates the price.
But recently Apple and Reliance have signed a deal to open iStores in India, let’s see what happens when these two giants collaborate.