What you need to know
- Apple is trying to build its first-ever retail store in India.
- A report says this has now been delayed because of COVID-19.
- The store was originally tipped to open in Q1 of 2020.
Apple's long-awaited India store appears to have suffered another setback, with the company reportedly confirming that the project has been delayed again.
The launch of Apple's first offline store in India, announced for this year for Mumbai, is delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company confirmed. Apple CEO Tim Cook had early last year announced that the company will open its first retail store in 2021.
Apple opened its online store in India in September of last year, just in time for the launch of the iPhone 12 the following month. In October of 2019, it was first reported that Apple as planning to open a store in Mumbai's Maker Maxity Mall, located in the Bandra Kurla Complex. At the time it was reported the store would open in September of 2020, although it was later reported Apple's timeframe was actually Q1 of last year:
According to latest reports, however, the store is delayed:While the company never shared a firm timeline on when the online and brick-and-mortar stores would be set up in India, it was originally aiming to start the online sales in the country in the first quarter of this year, the source said. (The Q1 launch timeline was first signaled by Bloomberg, which reported that the operations would begin "within months.")
In January of 2020, it was reported that the store would not in fact be ready that year, and now the store seems to have suffered a further setback. The store will reportedly occupy three levels of the aforementioned location, a sprawling 20-25,000 square feet of retail real estate. No further details of an updated timeline were provided.
