This Article First Appeared In The Juggernaut On April 26, 2023
On April 17, 2023, Mumbai’s famous Swati Snacks, a quick-serve spot that slings street food, was abuzz with excitement. One of Swati Snacks’s diners that day was Apple CEO Tim Cook, who sat next to Bollywood star Madhuri Dixit as the two munched on vada paos. “Thanks, Madhuri Dixit for introducing me to my very first Vada Pav — it was delicious!” Cook later tweeted. He would go on to inaugurate Apple’s first retail store in India the very next day, and its second two days after that.
Apple, the most valuable company in the world at $2.3 trillion, has long relied on China to fuel its growth. Now, the tides are changing. The opening of Apple’s first store in India, where the company is committed to “growing and investing,” had been rumored since 2019. As of 2022, Apple’s market share in India was 4%, quadruple what it was in 2019, and Cook aims to have 25% of all iPhones manufactured in India by 2025.