Apple will launch its Indian online store on September 23, CEO Tim Cook tweeted on Friday. This is the first time the company will sell its products and services to Indian customers directly instead of through third party resellers. The move is in line with Cook's February announcement that said an online store will be launched this year, and a physical retail store in 2021. Apple is also making a considerable push to tailot its services for India. Its customer service representatives — known as Apple Specialists — will offer support in Hindi, along with English. It is also going to offer personalised engraving services on its popular wireless earphones "AirPods" with text in seven Indian languages apart from English — Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. On its iPad and Apple Pencil, however, engraving services will only be available in English. The company also announced that it will offer financing and trade-in programmes in India. It will also give student discounts on its laptops, desktops and iPads. Similarly, AppleCare+ — extended warranty and technical support plans — will be available to Indian consumers. From October, it will begin free online sessions on photography and music by local professionals. Fruition of years' long efforts Apple has been trying to open its Indian stores, both online and offline, for several years but was delayed because of FDI norms regarding the sourcing of its good locally. It was only in August 2019 that the 30% local sourcing FDI norm was…
