Beginning its computer assembly at a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, Apple has shaped life on this planet like no other company, but has seen the best and worst of times in its nearly half a century of existence. Co-founder Steve Jobs, unquestionably one of the biggest legends of Silicon Valley, was once sacked from the company. When Steve Jobs returned to the helms in 1997, bankruptcy was staring in the company’s face and even had to turn to bitter rival Microsoft for help with cash. Slowly, Apple moved its manufacturing lock, stock and barrel to China and by 2004 even its last manufacturing facility in the US was shut down.

In January last year, the company had fleetingly crossed the $3-trillion mark, but it could not be sustained. Worse still, the stock price began an uncharacteristic descent, that took the market value to $2 trillion sending jitters down the market. For the next one year, it was a real struggle to keep the target in sight, but finally the company has hit the coveted figure. The position leaves other giants such as Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and others behind.

CEO Tim Cook’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a milestone in the company’s relationship with India, with Cook acknowledging the huge market potential of India and indicating the possibility of setting up manufacturing and direct retailing in the country. “India has such a beautiful culture and an incredible energy, and we’re excited to build on our long-standing history — supporting our customers, investing in local communities, and working together to build a better future with innovations that serve humanity,” Tim Cook said.

Apple began manufacturing iPhone in India in 2017, and since then, the company has worked with suppliers to assemble iPhone models and produce a growing number of components. It has three contract manufacturers producing and exporting the iPhone 12, 13, 14 and 14+ models from India. The contract manufacturers, namely, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and Pegatron, both located out of Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka-based Wistron are all participants in the government’s smartphone production linked incentive (PLI) scheme launched in April 2021.

Apple celebrated more than 25 years in India in the month of April this year even as the company was marking a major expansion with the opening of its first Apple Store locations in the country, along with new environmental initiatives and a key milestone in the rapidly growing community of Indian developers. The month also saw Apple’s first two retail stores in India open in Mumbai and Delhi, welcoming customers from all over the country.

Apple has acknowledged that India’s vibrant community of app developers now supports more than 1 million jobs. A testament to the tremendous growth of developers, App Store payouts to developers in the country have more than tripled since 2018.

At the iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru, Apple works one-on-one with developers to help take their apps from good to great. Since 2017, the accelerator has hosted sessions for more than 15,000 developers, enabling them to build on their ideas and bring cutting-edge apps to the market. Apple’s work with Indian suppliers of all sizes supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.

Apple continues to expand its range of award-winning services available to customers in India, offering a growing catalogue of music in Spatial Audio on Apple Music, and most recently launching the new Apple Music Classical app designed specifically for classical music lovers. Services like Apple Music elevate local artists like Mali, Armaan Malik, DIVINE, and Sandunes through expert curation and editorial.

The company says it is committed to be 100 percent carbon neutral for its supply chain and products by 2030, and all active Indian manufacturing supply chain partners are committed to using 100 percent clean energy for their Apple operations. Building on its work to expand recycled materials across its products, the company recently announced it will use 100 percent recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries by 2025. (IPA Service)