Apple is working hard to get India's billion-plus citizens to think different about its products.
The California-based technology company confirmed Tuesday that it will be opening a development center in Hyderabad, India as part of its continued effort to expand its presence and sales in the country. The new center will be focused on Apple Maps.
"We are looking forward to opening a new development office in Hyderabad that will be home to over 150 Apple employees supporting maps development," Apple said in a statement provided to The Times of India. "The office will also have space for many contractors who will support our ambitious efforts locally."
A source close to Apple confirmed the new center to Mashable and said employees there will focus on improving Apple's maps.
Apple, of course, operates other R&D offices and app development centers on multiple continents, not to mention its sprawling supply chain operations in China and Brazil.
However, the new Hyderabad developer center launches as Apple is trying to find some much-needed sales opportunities in India at a time when overall sales growth is harder to come by.
In addition to hiring locally, Apple is also said to be planning the launch of its first-ever branded retail stores in the country to entice customers.
On a conference call with analysts last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted India as a "rapidly expanding" market and said the company will re-double its investments there.
"India is also incredibly exciting," Cook said on the earnings call. "The population of India is incredibly young... Almost half the people in India are below 25. And so I see the demographics there also being incredibly great for a consumer brand and for people that really want the best products."
Apple is far from the only prominent technology company looking to expand in India.
Uber has raised hundreds of millions in venture capital to break into India and China.
Amazon has been offering more localized products, including cow pies (or dung), to appeal to more consumers.
And Facebook has invested in providing free Internet access to people in the country who can't afford it, potentially expanding their user base in the process.
These efforts have had mixed results to date.
Facebook, which had already turned India into one of its largest markets, may have overstepped its boundaries by trying to push a select suite of free Internet tools (including Facebook, of course) and touting it as a social good rather than a capitalist cause. India recently banned Free Basics and India's public sentiment about Facebook took a hit.
Uber, Amazon and Apple have not faced any blowback of that nature, but all three face stiff competition from well-funded homegrown startups: OlaCabs for Uber, Snapdeal and Flipkart for Amazon and Xiaomi for Apple.
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Topics Apple
