Apple CEO Tim Cook, on Tuesday, opened doors of the very first Apple physical retail store in India as thousands of Apple fans and tech enthusiasts cheered from the outside. Starting Tuesday afternoon, people in Mumbai will be able to experience and purchase Apple products from the store, located at the Jio World Drive mall in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). The store is a major step by Apple to increase its offline presence in the Indian market and take on its closest rival Samsung.
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The Apple BKC store opening was attended by close to 5000 tech enthusiasts – some of which had arrived at the venue as early as 8 am in the morning – almost three hours before the doors were officially opened. Apple had also hosted a special preview of the store on Monday where a bunch of media professionals, including us, were given a special tour of the store.
The store has a unique approach to the shopping experience. It is spacious, has a warm vibe and ample of sunlight coming through the glass walls. There are plants placed inside the store, probably in line with company’s overall environment-friendly approach. Apple claims that this is one of the most sustainable stores, which will be carbon neutral and work on 100 percent renewable energy.
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The sustainability and green theme reflects in the t-shirt colours (Green) of the sales team members. The staff is quite versatile and knowledgeable too. The 100-member team at the BKC store can speak more than 20 languages between them, understands every Apple product and is capable of guiding visitors through the desired technologies.
While the basic design philosophy of the store is more or less the same as the other Apple stores around the globe, the company has added an Indian touch to it as well. The store features a triangular, handcrafted timber ceiling that extends beyond the glass façade. It has over 4,50,000 timber elements sourced from Delhi. As soon as you enter the store, you see a 14-metre-long stainless steel staircase, and two grey stone walls – all sourced from Rajasthan, along with the mosaic flooring.
The store will sell all of Apple’s currently available products in India – MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and watches. Along with this, it also showcases the Apple Arcade, the Apple HomePod, Apple Music, and Apple TV+. There is also a Genius Bar on the first floor of the store to provide the necessary assistance to the visitors. The opening of the store is the next big step from Apple in strengthening its footprint in India.
Over the last couple of years, Apple has been closely monitoring and working on the Indian market. Some of it is a result of Apple’s China-plus-one strategy to diversify manufacturing outside China amid ongoing US-China tensions but a lot of it can also be attributed to India’s emergence as the next major manufacturing hub.
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It started manufacturing older iPhone models in India in 2017, and has gone on to assembling the latest iPhone models since last year. While the Apple BKC is the first store in the country, another is opening on April 20 in New Delhi.
