From announcing a Design and Development Accelerator facility in Bengaluru to performing aarti at the famed Shree Siddhivinayak temple and attending a star-studded dinner at Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's home in the evening, Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday had a packed schedule as he kicked off his four-day India visit in a highly "encrypted" manner.
"Great to hear from some of India's top iOS developers today. Innovative apps and many ideas for the future!," Cook later tweeted.
Cook kicked off his maiden India trip with an early morning visit to the famed Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Prabhadevi, central Mumbai, where he performed a special 'aarti'.
Sporting a light blue shirt and dark trousers with a yellow stole with Sanskrit scriptures in orange, Cook performed a special 'aarti' of the temple's presiding deity, Lord Ganesha -- who symbolizes wisdom and is the remover of all obstacles.
Accompanied by Apple India head Sanjay Kaul, Cook's temple visit was a prelude to a host of meetings lined up with top business and Bollywood personalities later in the day.
At the temple Cook ran into Anant Ambani, the scion of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and chatted with him for some time
Ahead of the trip, Cook said in an official Apple statement "India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS [Apple platform] development communities in the world."
"With the opening of this new facility in Bengaluru, we're giving developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world," he added.
In the evening, the Apple CEO is set for a gala dinner at Shah Rukh's residence "Mannat" where celebrities like actor-producer Aamir Khan are to be present among the star attendees.
A source in the know of developments told IANS that details of Cook's visit to Shah Rukh's house were kept hush-hush, and that "it is a very private gathering".
The high-profile Apple CEO is slated to visit Bengaluru and Hyderabad on Thursday before flying to New Delhi and meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Hyderabad, he is expected to announce a new digital maps centre for the Telangana capital.
The facility will reportedly commence operations on one lakh square feet leased space in WaveRock, a building owned by real estate giant Tishman Speyer at Nanakramguda.
The US-based firm plans to expand the facility to 2.5 lakh square feet by next year. It will have 2,500 employees, sources said. The company, which has taken the space on lease at WaveRock, is also planning to build its own campus.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao or his son and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao may make an announcement for allocation of land to Apple for its campus.
According to reports, the company is looking for new growth markets like India after its sales declined.
Apple's Design and Development Accelerator facility in Bengaluru, slated to open in early 2017, will be a first-of-its-kind centre that will support engineering talent and developer community, creating innovative mobile apps in India.
Thousands of developers in India make apps for iOS, the world's most powerful mobile operating system and the foundation for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and the new initiative will provide additional, specialised support to the developers.
Each week, Apple experts will brief and provide one-on-one app reviews for the developers, support and guide them on Swift, Apple's powerful and intuitive programming language created to build apps for iOS, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch.
Swift enables developers write safer, more reliable code, save time and create richer app experiences and a recent report from Toptal showed jobs requests for Swift rising by 600 percent in 2015.
Bengaluru is the cradle of maximum tech startups in India with over a million people working in this sector and over 40 percent graduates from local universities specializing in engineering or IT.
Cook's visit to India comes at a time when the US technology giant is hit by slower growth in global sales of its flagship products -- iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Zomato and Snapdeal along with NASSCOM president R. Chandrashekhar extended their support for the new facility.
The Apple CEO is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. He had met Modi at a Silicon Valley event in the US last September, where they discussed manufacturing plans under Modi's 'Make in India' initiative.
The Apple CEO flew to the country from China, where Apple announced a $1 billion investment in the local ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing.
"India is incredibly exciting. The population of India is incredibly young. Almost half the people in India are below 25. And so I see the demographics there also being incredibly great for a consumer brand and for people that really want the best products," Cook had said earlier this year.
DINNER AT SRK'S HOME FOR APPLE CEO A STARRY AFFAIR
Dinner hosted by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan in honour of Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday at his residence 'Mannat' turned out to be a starry affair.
Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Farhan Khan, A.R. Rahman, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sania Miza, among other celebrities, made their presence at the event.
Cook is in India on his first official visit to the country.
On Wednesday, he announced that the tech giant will establish a design and development accelerator facility in Bengaluru, the home of India's startup scene.
He also took out time to visit the Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai. He will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday during his Delhi visit.
APPLE TO OPEN APP DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN INDIA IN EARLY 2017
NEW DELHI — Apple will set up an app design and development centre in southern India, the company announced Wednesday, shortly after its CEO, Tim Cook, arrived in the country on his first visit.
Tens of thousands of Indian developers design apps for Apple devices, and the company said in a statement that the development lab would give them specialized support. It's expected to open in the technology hub of Bangalore in early 2017.
"India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world," the statement quoted Cook as saying.
He said the new facility will give "developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world."
While the company hasn't revealed any details of Cook's schedule, local news reports say he'll meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government officials. He is also expected to meet top business leaders.
India has one of the world's fastest growing smartphone markets but it is dominated by Android phones.
Apple is also trying to get Indian government approval to sell refurbished iPhones in a market where consumers are extremely price-sensitive. There's been no official comment on that proposal but it's likely to face stiff opposition from local manufacturers.
Currently Apple phones have about a 2 per cent market share in India. To make successful inroads into the Indian market the tech company will have to bring in cheaper versions of the iPhone, in a country where smartphones are available for as little as $100.
Silicon Valley tech giants have been aggressively courting India over the last few years.
With a massive 1.25 billion population, including 6 million new Internet users every month, India has become a key focus of companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
