Chief executive Tim Cook opened the doors of the store located in a mall in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) business district exactly at 11 AM to welcome the first set of customers.
Dressed in a black t-shirt and grey pants and accompanied by the company’s senior vice president for retail Deirdre O’Brien, Cook opened the doors of the store to walk into a crowded foyer to pose for the media, and then started welcoming customers into the store.
“The energy, creativity, and passion in Mumbai is incredible! We are so excited to open Apple BKC – our first store in India,” Cook, who opened the doors of the store for customers, tweeted.
As the store’s 100-odd employees along with company executives from other parts of the world cheered, Cook welcomed about a dozen-odd customers for seven minutes before going back into the store.
While a lot of features at the store are the same as other Apple stores across the world, the company seems to have paid attention to ‘Indianise’ the facility by including local influences, starting with the much talked about ‘kaali-peeli’ theme on the facade borrowed from the black and yellow taxis on the city roads.
Excitement levels were already very high over the last fortnight since the company announced the opening of the store, and many fans had been queuing up at the mall since morning to be among the first ones to shop at the store.
Apple’s maiden retail store in the country has been a subject of great speculation since at least 2019, when the Indian policymakers warmed up to the idea of welcoming foreign direct investment in single brand retail.
Cook posed for selfies with the customers and exchanged quick pleasantries before welcoming them into the store located inside the Jio World Drive mall.
Customers took selfies with Cook, sought autographs and exchanged pleasantries before going in. One among them, a designer from Mumbai, carried his nearly four-decade-old Mac, a product which revolutionised personal computing and established Apple as a strong brand with a design focus, with him.
The store has products, merchandise and services like repairing the gadgets available for customers, executives said, adding that the customers will be able to check out the products and can also educate themselves on how to use them optimally.
Like in any other store, there are long wooden desks on which the products have been kept, which also include specially built sensors that trigger the opening of switches.
A staircase with a 14-metre single piece glass on either side of the stairs is the key highlight of the store spread over 20,000 square feet over two floors in the Jio World Drive mall, which also houses brands like Diesel, Michael Kors, Kate Spade and Swarovski.
At present, Apple has a 3 per cent share in the highly competitive Indian smartphone market which is ruled by Chinese and South Korean brands. Lately, the company has upped its reliance on manufacturing in India, which is increasingly being seen as an alternative for China ever since the supply chain disruptions during the Covid pandemic.
Members of a traditional band in local outfits play music during the opening of India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai.
The company’s senior vice president for retail Deirdre O’Brien told reporters that a lot of attention has been given to Apple’s key beliefs of sustainability and inclusivity, and pointed out that the 100-strong team which will be on the floor will be speaking 18 Indian languages.
The company employs 2,500 people in the country and has indirectly helped create 10 lakh jobs through its app ecosystem, she said.A man shows an iPod at India’s first Apple retail store after its opening at BKC, in Mumbai. Launch of the store in the financial capital on Tuesday will be followed with the opening of a similar store in New Delhi’s Saket two days later. As per reports, the company will be paying Rs 42 lakh per month as a rental for the store, and will also share a part of the revenues with the space owner.