Apple might soon launch its first brick-and-mortar stores in India

According to the initial report, Apple has already begun hiring to fill out its yet-to-be-announced Indian stores. New openings for 12 retail positions, including store leaders, senior managers, Genius Bar employees, and others, can be found in the company’s most recent job postings, which are located in “various locations” across the nation.

Although there is no indication of the number of positions that are open, the job listings, which include both full-time and part-time positions, make a clear reference to the Apple Store. The reports that at least five Mumbai and New Delhi employees posted on LinkedIn that they had been hired for the upcoming stores. In a post on the network, Apple’s head of recruiting in India, Renu Sevanthi, also “celebrated” the hiring.

This is consistent with a report published in The Economic Times in July 2022, which states that Apple intends to open a 22,000-square-foot store in Mumbai at the start of this year. The company is also said to be working on a store in New Dehli that will be between 10,000 and 12,000 square feet in size, as well as a number of other stores across the nation; however, it is unknown when these stores will open. The Verge inquired about Apple’s response but did not receive a response right away.

In 2020, Apple made its online store available to Indian customers for the first time. At the same time, CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company might open a physical store. Cook said, “I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us.” He was referring to the third-party retailers that currently sell iPhones to Indian customers in physical stores. Cook initially stated that Apple would open its first Indian store in 2021; however, the covid pandemic caused these plans to be pushed back a second time last year.

Apple is moving more production to India as part of its strategy to expand its retail presence there. In 2017, the company moved production of the iPhone 14 from China to India, shifting it from China shortly after its release. India may be beginning to appear as a manufacturing hub that is becoming increasingly appealing in light of Apple’s efforts to distance itself from China for political reasons and to reduce costs in the face of difficult economic conditions. As the nation with the lowest manufacturing costs, it outperforms both China and Vietnam and has a huge smartphone market that Apple has only begun to exploit.