Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday announced that his company is "looking forward" to setting up retail stores in India, which is also Apple's fastest growing smartphone market .
"India is now one of our fastest growing markets. In the first three quarters of this fiscal year, our iPhone sales in India were up 51 per cent year-on-year," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Apple's fiscal year Q3 2016 earnings call.
"Apple has just announced first-of-its-kind design and development accelerator to support Indian app developers, as well as the new office in Hyderabad to accelerate maps development," Cook added.
On his India visit, Cook had discussed issues including manufacturing and setting up retail stores in the country with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In May, Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government is not in favour of Apple selling refurbished iPhones in India.
"On a personal note, during the past quarter I visited China and India, and I am very encouraged about our growth prospects in those countries," he said.
The new FDI reforms which relax restrictions on foreign investments in single-brand retail are expected to benefit Apple as a three-year relaxation introduced on local sourcing norms with an extension of up to five years possible if it can be proven that products are "state of the art" and "cutting edge".