Apple Opens First Store in India, a Promising Frontier for the Tech Giant

Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, visited India this week to open the company’s first two Apple stores there: The biggest public company in the world is finally opening its first retail outlets in the world’s most populous country.

Roaring crowds of would-be customers greeted him in Mumbai on Tuesday at a sleek glass-and-timber flatiron of a storefront, called Apple BKC, in the Bandra Kurla Complex. On Thursday, Mr. Cook will travel to New Delhi to open a second store, Apple Saket, at the center of the capital’s biggest mall.

The Apple brand is not new to India. But for the past 25 years — marked this week, in fact — Apple has relied solely on third-party sellers to get its products into the hands of Indian consumers. The iPhone is still a rare sight within the ocean of cheaper, and mostly Chinese-branded, Android smartphones that have swept across India over the past decade. Yet in India, as in nearly every other part of the world, Apple has its fans. Some of the most ardent were at the Mumbai opening, screaming their support.

And in Delhi are eager customers like Amar Bhasin, 41, whose first cellphone, bought 18 years ago, was a Panasonic. More recently, he bought an iPad from an Indian outlet, only to discover that its screen was cracked. The store refused to exchange it, and local service centers weren’t helpful. So Mr. Bhasin addressed a letter to Mr. Cook himself — and a month later, a new iPad appeared in the mail.

“I felt so good, and became an Apple fan instantly — who does that?” Mr. Bhasin said, standing before the still-shrouded Apple Saket. “I don’t see myself buying another brand in the foreseeable future.”