Mumbai: Apple CEO Tim Cook has kicked of his maiden India visit by announcing an app development center in Bangaluru and by paying a visit to the Holy Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai.
Cook arrived in Mumbai around 11.45 pm yesterday via his private jet from China, after sealing a billion dollar deal with Didi Chuxing. Just a day after touching down, he announced that the tech giant would be building a design and development facility in Bengaluru for the millions of capable developers in the country.
On Wednesday morning, Cook visited Mumbai’s famous Siddhivinayak temple where he bumped in to Annat Ambani, who is the son of Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani. He was accompanied by Apple India head Sanjay Kaul.
Speaking about Reliance, the company has an important role to play in strengthening Apple’s operations in India. Reliance is already working on rolling out fast 4G internet across the country and Cook said earlier that a lot of iPhone sales in the country depends high speed internet.
Moving on, several reports suggested that Cook plans to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, and superstar Shah Rukh Khan during his stay in Mumbai.
On Friday, he is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the second time; they first met when Modi went to US last year. He is also expected to visit the IT capitals Bengaluru and Hyderabad respectively.
Cook’s visit to India has been kept cagey, maybe because he wants to discuss the issue regarding the sale of refurbished iPhones in the country and device a deal for the same.
Although Apple is the last among the tech giants in the world to open a development centre in India, the facility in Bengaluru will significantly help budding developers and engineers to create new mobile iOS apps. The development facility is expected to make its debut in 2017.
