According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple has started to finalise locations for its first retail store that is set to open in India soon. The report said that the company has 'redoubled its efforts' in India to open its first store in an upscale location. 

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The first location is said to be in Mumbai and will probably be at a site similar to iconic locations such as Orchard Street in Singapore, Regent Street in London and Gift Avenue in New York. 

Currently, Apple sells its products via authorised partners only, as the company did not meet local manufacturing and sourcing requirements. Apple has now increased manufacturing in India and is currently in talks with the Government for a retail store, the report says. 

Wistron's factory application for a new $1 billion factory in India was recently approved by the country's IT ministry, which means Apple will soon have an additional manufacturing unit here in India. The new factory will be manufacturing Apple's iPhone 8, in addition to the iPhone SE, 6S, and AirPods. 

Additionally, the Foxconn project is also in progress, which could be commissioned to assemble the rest of the iPhone line-up including the new iPhone XS, XS Max and XR

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“India is a very important market in the long term,” Cook said after the company's earnings report last week. “It's a challenging market in the short term, but we're learning a lot. We plan on going in there with sort of all of our might.”

Last month, Apple slashed prices for the iPhone XR and offered a price cut of Rs 17,000. The price cut resulted in good sale numbers for Apple's latest smartphone and it seems like Apple is gearing up for a far more competitive strategy.

Source: Bloomberg