Apple's opportunity to expand retail into India

Aditya, you are right but the reason for the high prices in not Apple in India. If you look 3 years in the past, the cost of the apple products were at par with Singapore and other asian countries. Around the time that apple decided to put up a call center and then pulled out, a new conglomerate emerged consisting of various distributors and retailers. The makor player in this was Reliance Retail (Reliance Digital). When apple pulled out, they reclassified India in the European Region and not the asian region. So most of the profits went to them. If you notice Apple India Pvt Ltd is a stand alone company with no real affiliations to Apple Inc. If you calculate the cost of a Mac product in UK its just the base indian prices plus the GST. On the other hand the cost of apple mobile products like the iPhone and iPad will never actually see a very high price cut as the mobile network model in the rest of the world is one of a contract based system and it has not worked out in India thus far.

On the point that the cost of the Mac is very high, I agree, but mainly due to a few greedy retailers. I have on several occasions emailed Apple Australia(the regional HQ for Asia) and they only support you with spares and accessories.

Just an example on why this is true can be seen by visiting any Reliance iStore or Imagine Apple stores. They will never have all the products stocked. They only have products that sell. So say you want a Wired aluminium keyboard or say a External superdrive, you will never find it in stock. The reason is not that its expensive or cheap but just as simple as its not a moving product.

As far as repairs go, anyone with even a little tech knowhow can join an Apple Authorized Hardware Technician course and do it. Even then, hey are horrendous at their job. I had a time when i sent my MacBook for repairs(changing the topcase) and they sent back a broken laptop. They had managed to completely damage the outer shell and when confronting them, they said, "Oh thats the way the laptop was from before". Luckily i had taken some photos before giving it in, so i contacted Apple Australia and after a 2 week long struggle, they finally decided to give me a new laptop(Good of the guys in australia). But this was once I placed a complaint in the consumer court and send them the legal papers.

So all in all, Until and unless apple does not step in and actively control the sales and after-sales process, nothing is going to change. With the new Foreign investments law, hopefully all the Indian Apple fans will see a better service and more value for money in Apple products in the years to come.