Apple will open two new stores at Mumbai’s Sky City Mall at Borivali and at Bengaluru’s Phoenix Mall of India, as a part of the second phase of its retail expansion in India, according to sources. With this, the Cupertino-based firm has now decided all the four locations where it would open its retail stores in the next phase. FE had last month reported that the other two stores would open at Noida’s Mall of India and Pune’s Kopa Mall.
This will be the firm’s second store in Mumbai after the existing one in BKC. It has another store in New Delhi’s Saket, opened in 2023. The company did not respond to FE’s queries till press time.
During the Q2 2025 earnings call earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the retail stores would start opening later this year. Sources further suggest that Apple has been constantly hiring people for these stores since March.
This comes in the backdrop of the company positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base amid US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, which have raised supply chain concerns and fears of higher iPhone prices. Cook said, “For the June quarter, we do expect the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin.”
In March, Apple exported around 600 tonne of iPhones worth $2 billion to the US from India. The firm has also been working with authorities here to expand sourcing from local vendors. It has asked its suppliers to take advantage of incentives offered under the recently launched `23,000 crore Electronics components manufacturing scheme (ECMS) to start domestic production of electronic components.
Earlier, on Monday, Apple supplier Foxconn announced it would invest $1.5 billion in its India unit to expand its production. The Tata Group has also expanded its role by acquiring Wistron’s Indian operations and managing Pegatron’s local business.
In 2023-24, Apple produced around $22 billion worth of iPhones in the country, around 60% increase as compared to the previous year.
The company is also conducting a “New Production Introduction” (NPI) for the upcoming iPhone 17 at a facility here. In NPIs, the company takes a prototype design and makes it into a blueprint suitable for mass production.
Currently, Apple makes all four models of the iPhone 16 in India, including the premium Pro models.