Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook is set to launch the company's first store in India on Tuesday, in financial capital Mumbai.
He
will also attend the opening of a second store in capital city Delhi on
Thursday.
Until
now, Apple products have been available in India either online or through a
vast network of resellers.
On
Monday, Mr Cook tweeted that he "can't wait to welcome" customers to
the new store in Mumbai.
Earlier
in the day, Apple had given a preview of the store, which is located in an
upscale neighbourhood of the city, to some bloggers and analysts. The store's
design has been inspired by the black-and-yellow taxis that are ubiquitous in
Mumbai.
Reports
say hundreds of people are expected to turn up for the main launch event on
Tuesday.
The
new stores come at a time when Apple is trying to deepen its retail push in
India, the world's second-largest smartphone market. The iPhone is still an
aspirational product in the price-sensitive Indian market, where more than 95%
of smartphones run on Google's Android platform.
India
is also rising as a manufacturing base for the iPhone as Apple diversifies
its supply chains away from China. India now accounts for 5% of total iPhone
production.
But
experts say that while the stores are an important branding strategy, they
won't have an immediate impact on Apple's sales in India. Others, however, have pointed out that
it's a good time for Apple to invest in India's growing "premium
smartphone" market - which refers to mobiles that cost 40,000 rupees
(£451; $558) or more.
"When
you launch an Apple store you're basically giving a premium experience to your
premium consumers. It might not pull up sales but it definitely pulls more
people into the Apple ecosystem," technology analyst Navkendar Singh told
the BBC.
Apple
has long tried to open physical retail stores in India. Its original plans for
2021 were derailed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This
is Mr Cook's first trip to India in seven years - the Apple CEO last visited in
2016 when the tech giant was just beginning to scale up operations in the
country.
On
Monday, he shared a picture of himself eating a vada pav - a popular
Indian snack - with Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit.
Reports
say Mr Cook is also expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and deputy IT
minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar as part of his visit. There was no official
announcement from Mr Modi's office regarding this.
Source: BBC