The closure of the ‘premium’ reseller Apple Imagine, located in Delhi’s Select Citywalk Mall of Saket, has sparked questions about the role of tech giant Apple in the retail market structuring of India. The store had been functional for nine years, and its lease agreement was not extended, according to sources, due to the mall authority’s expectation that the official Apple store would perform better.
Reportedly, Apple had presented a list of 20 resellers to the mall management that were asked to shut down pertaining to the Saket store inauguration. Furthermore, Apple had asked Reliance Jio World Drive Mall to bar about two dozen competitor brands from having any kind of presence near its BKC store.
The Select Citywalk Mall had signed an agreement with Apple not to have stores of Amazon, Bose, Devialet, Facebook, Foxconn, Alphabet/Google, Huawei, Intel, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Nest, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus anywhere near the Apple store.
The recent scenario has led to questions about Apple’s influence in India’s retail market. The tech giant has been investing in India and creating jobs along with its vendors. Minister of State, Electronics, and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, tweeted that Apple has generated more than 1 Lakh jobs in the country. Furthermore, the production of iPhones has also tripled in India.
Apple’s vendor Foxconn has announced plans to invest in Telangana and Karnataka to set up manufacturing units for Apple’s products, while another contract manufacturer, Salcomp, plans to double its headcount in India to 25,000 by 2026.
The recently inaugurated Apple store in Saket, Delhi, equipped with technical experts and customer-friendly features, poses a challenge for competitors and resellers to cope with. The situation raises the question of how Apple’s retail strategy will impact smaller resellers in the country.
