India

Apple has officially opened its new App Accelerator in Bangalore as part of an effort to support engineering talent and boost growth in India's iOS developer community (via Mashable). At the center, experts will lead briefings and provide one-to-one app reviews for developers. Apple is calling the facility "the first of its kind" in the country, and says it will provide specialized support to...

Government officials in India today confirmed that Apple will begin manufacturing iPhone devices within its Bangalore plant over the next few months, in a bid to boost the company's presence within the Indian smartphone market. As was previously reported, Wistron will take the brunt of iPhone manufacturing in the country, focusing on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE. In terms of...

Apple is to set to begin ramping up assembly of the iPhone SE at its Bangalore manufacturing plant in India in the coming months, sources said on Friday (via Reuters). Last month, Apple agreed a deal with the Indian government to commence manufacturing operations in the Karnataka-based facility, with Taiwanese manufacturing partner Wistron reportedly winning the contract to set up the plant...

Apple has agreed to a deal with the government of Indian state Karnataka to begin manufacturing iPhones in Bangalore, reports The Times of India. The Karnataka government announced that it had approved Apple's proposal to "commence initial manufacturing operations" in a press release. Apple's desire to open a manufacturing hub in India started after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began...

Apple on Wednesday said it appreciated the "constructive" dialogue it had held with officials from India regarding the expansion of its local operations in the country. Earlier this month, reports indicated that a high-level meeting would be taking place between the two sides, with Apple seeking concessions from the Indian government if it agreed to manufacture products locally. That meeting...

Apple has tapped manufacturer Wistron as the first major supplier in India for this year's iPhone 8, following multiple reports that the company has been looking into manufacturing its products locally in the country. According to a new report from DigiTimes, Wistron will become the first original equipment manufacturer for 2017 iPhones, while Foxconn and a collection of other suppliers are being ...

The Indian government has decided not to offer special concessions to Apple as part of negotiations as the company looks to build its first manufacturing plants in the country. According a report in the India Economic Times, New Delhi will instead review its entire policy on mobile manufacturing as part of a wider effort to promote its 'Make in India' initiative. This could meet some of the...

Apple executives will attend a high-profile meeting with Indian officials later this month in order to discuss the company's plans to set up a manufacturing plant in the country. Apple is said to be seeking a number of tax and other incentives at the meeting, set to take place on January 25, and could potentially ask for long-term duty exemptions. According to PTI, Indian representatives from ...

Following reports this month that Apple has been in talks to manufacture its products locally in India, as well as set up a distribution center in the country, an article by Bloomberg today suggests that the Cupertino company is now asking India to offer up tax concessions on iPhones created within its borders. According to people familiar with the matter, Apple is asking for lower import...

Apple is in talks with India to explore the possibility of making products locally, according to The Wall Street Journal (via Reuters). The negotiations come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to boost his 'Make in India' initiative, with Apple eager to make deeper inroads into the world's second largest mobile market. In June, Modi ordered his government to exempt foreign retailers...

Amazon today announced that its Prime Video streaming service has expanded to over 200 countries including India, the company's largest available market outside the U.S. Prime Video is automatically available at no additional cost to Amazon Prime members in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and Spain, and to customers in new Prime Video territories at an introductory price of $2.99 (or 2.99...

Monster chasing phenomenon Pokémon GO is finally coming to India, it was announced today (via Mashable). 4G LTE carrier Reliance Jio has partnered with Niantic, publisher and developer of Pokémon GO, to bring the hit game to the country on Wednesday. The partnership will see thousands of Reliance Digital Stores and other affiliated premises become PokéStops and gyms, where players are most...

Apple is set to create a new distribution center in India to consolidate its logistics and supply chain in the country, according to The Economic Times. The center will be its first in India. Currently, Apple products are brought to India via several different cities: Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Each city has a different value-added tax (VAT) rate, which...

Apple has partnered with Indian ride-sharing company Ola to make Apple Music available to customers who order a ride, reports The Los Angeles Times. Apple Music, along with services from Sony, Fynd, and Audio Compass, will be incorporated into a platform called Ola Play, allowing customers to control music, watch videos, read ebooks, and adjust in-car temperature, all from a tablet inside the...

Apple is seeking financial incentives within India to make it easier to build a new manufacturing plant within the country (via The Economic Times). The company has asked for incentives specifically from the Department of Revenue and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology in India as a way to offset the high cost of building an entirely new iPhone manufacturing unit in the...

India's Forensic Science Laboratory is in negotiations to purchase the security bypassing technology used by Israeli mobile software developer Cellebrite, the company that the FBI enlisted to help unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter earlier in the year (via The Economic Times). The FBI needed Cellebrite's "mobile forensics solutions" to bypass the lock on the iPhone 5c in question, ...

Apple has announced that iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus launch in India on October 7 and in Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, South Africa, and Turkey on October 14. The smartphones also launch in Ukraine on October 7, and in South Korea and Thailand on October 21, according to local news reports. In India, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available through online shops Flipkart,...

Google has announced YouTube Go, a new app that lets users save videos for offline viewing and allows sharing of videos with nearby users over Bluetooth (via The Verge). The app includes options for previewing videos before download, and controlling video quality and file size, all of which are intended to benefit users concerned about cellular data limits and those who are located in areas...

Apple has partnered with e-commerce giant Flipkart to sell the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in India, where the phones are expected to launch on October 7 (via Mashable). The online retail partnership means Flipkart will source iPhones directly from Apple instead of from third-party suppliers, which it has relied on in the past. The deal will ensure Flipkart earns a higher margin on every sale, but...

India is seeking discussions with Apple about including state-funded biometric ID technology to authenticate its citizens, according to Bloomberg. The government initiative is part of a national biometric identity program called Aadhaar (Hindi for 'foundation'), which already covers fingerprint and iris-scanning authentication across a range of public and private services including banking. ...