On Tuesday, Apple opened its first store in India , in an indication of the growing interest of the American giant in this giant country in South Asia, which represents a major market and a potential alternative to China for the manufacture of its products.

Apple President Tom Cook personally participated in the opening of the store, where he was receiving the first customers to the applause of the staff. In an upscale mall in the financial capital, Bombay, hundreds of consumers lined up, some waiting all night, to check out the new store ("Apple Store").

The company is counting heavily on this country of 1.4 billion people, which has the second largest number of smartphone users in the world after China.

And "Apple" opens its second store in the country, in the capital, New Delhi.

The company, the world's first in terms of market value, also intends to expand its industrial presence in India, as it seeks to diversify its supply network and liberate itself from the heavy dependence on China in this field.

In a statement published Monday, Apple described opening stores in India as a "major expansion" step. "We are thrilled to continue down our historic path," the company's managing director Tim Cook said in a statement.

And “Apple” launched its online store in India in 2020, but it did not open a non-virtual store due to investment laws that were later relaxed, requiring foreign companies to supply 30% of their raw materials locally.

With an iPod Touch made in 2013 still in its original box, marketing officer Purav Mehta, 30, waited all night in front of the store. "We have been waiting impatiently for this (...) for a long time," he told AFP.

Madhav Maimani, a 27-year-old stationery salesman, traveled nearly 900 km from Rajasthan to take part in the event.

He pointed out that "the manufacture of Apple devices in India will push prices down because they will become locally manufactured, which will make the price of iPhone phones acceptable."

"This will undoubtedly increase the possibility of Indians buying iPhones made in India for sentimental reasons," he said.

India has more than 600 million smartphone users, while devices running the Android operating system dominate this market, in which consumers pay special attention to the price.

And Chinese smartphone manufacturers “Xiaomi”, “Vivo”, “Oppo” and “Realme” acquired a cumulative market share of 66% in 2022, while South Korean Samsung alone won 19% of the market, according to the research company “Canalys”.

The share of "iPhone" phones in the Indian market did not exceed 4% last year.

However, according to Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia, Apple may benefit from smartphone development and financing programs for Indian retailers and consumers.

"Apple is focusing more on the Indian market because it sees more opportunity there," Chaurasia told AFP.

And in February, during a conference call about Apple's quarterly results, Tim Cook said India was "a very interesting market for us and a key target for us."

"Basically, we're taking what we learned in China and our progress, and we're putting that to good use," he added. He noted that Apple "dedicates a lot of energy" to India, saying he is "very optimistic" about the country.

India has also become an essential part of Apple's plans to move its production of devices and components out of China, in light of diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing, but also motivated by the negative repercussions on the supply chain of strict Chinese policies to combat the outbreak of Covid.

In 2021, only 1% of iPhones were manufactured in India, before the percentage rose to 7% last year, Bloomberg reported last week. Apple began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, through Taiwanese suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.