Tech giant Apple Inc has been assessing Indian research and development processes, and plans to set up it’s own development centre in India, once again. They had shut down the centre in 2006 as they were not very happy with the quality of service churned out back then.
A source close to the company insiders in Cupertino, California stated that, “This time, things have changed. The real draw is the pool of engineers specialized in retail and e-commerce.” If Apple’s plan gains structure, the project will help enhance India’s software engineering competence.
India has seen its engineers write codes for some tech giants across the globe. Even after shutting down its centre in India, Apple continued to work extensively with Indian vendors. Infosys’ largest client is Apple for an instance. As tradition has it, Apple has always kept the major operations being carried out from the U.S., outsourcing the maintenance of applications to vendors like Infosys.
As per another source, a former executive with Target and Delta Air Lines, Bob Kupbens, the vice-president of Apple Online Retail, who has quite some knowledge about India, is evaluating the process.
He has seen the Indian strategies and sees scope for development. He has been in Bengaluru in earlier part of his career and has seen good strategy execution in the country. Just as he has a past in Bengaluru, the industry onlookers believe he would want to make a come back in the same city. It is also the IT hub of India, grabbing eyeballs of many entrepreneurs.
“If Apple finally decides to come back, it will raise the stature of retail captives in India even more,” said the head of a captive centre for one of the global retail giants. “We’ve seen Apple take a more global view with their data centres as well as with other services. The theme seems to be global local,” said Ray Wang, founder of enterprise technology research and advisory firm Constellation Research. Apple denied comment in a mail saying, “We do not comment on rumor and speculation.”
In the recent past, Apple has seen India emerging to be a large market for its gadgets. The number of iPhone users in the country has seen a considerable increase over a period of time. It is also believed to be looking into tapping local talent pools by someone who has closely analyzed the company’s plans.
“A captive can change that strategy,” said an executive at a company that works with Apple. The identities of the sources cannot be revealed, as Apple is known to cancel contracts with individuals and companies that reveal the company’s strategies and engagements on public platforms.
So, while nothing is official as of now, given the confirmation from various sources, there is a strong chance that we should see Apple development centre come up in India shortly!
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