“I am looking at India holistically and we are here for the next thousand years,” Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized May 20 as the 55-year-old chief of Cupertino-based tech giant entered the final leg of his four-day India tour. Apple, which recently announced that it’s going to open offices in India with more than 4,000 jobs dedicated to working on Apple Maps, said that it’s going to stay in India for the foreseeable future and far beyond.
In an interview with the media, Cook said: “India is much more strategic. We are thinking about a really long innings in the country. We are here for next thousand years. We are not making the most but the best. We will never make a product that we are not proud of.”
“Apple has a bright future for retail in India. We will sell pre-owned phones with a new warranty. We want India to have best Apple products,” he stressed, adding that he instantly feels like he belongs here in India. When asked about China, Cook said: “India is different than China,” adding that the announcements about Apps development facility in Bengaluru and Maps Development Centre in Hyderabad were just the beginning.
“We are in India for the next thousand years,” Tim Cook said. “Our horizon is very long. We are focused on best, not most. So it doesn’t bother me that we don’t have top market share.”
“If you think about automobiles, brands like Lexus and Mercedes have been selling certified pre-owned cars,” Cook explained. “We have this program in the U.S. and in most parts of the world. When they are sold, they are sold with warranty, just like a new product. We would never sell a product that we didn’t think was right.” Cook also said Apple is going to “logically look at” manufacturing iPhones in India, too.