Apple is believed to have been in negotiations with the Indian government for a very long time. The company is willing to manufacture smartphones in India but wants to be given the permission to start selling refurbished units of the iPhone in the country where cost is often the biggest barrier stopping people from buying a premium device like the iPhone. According to a new report, Apple is going to make iPhone production in India contingent upon being allowed to sell refurbished iPhones in the country.
However, Bloomberg does mention that this is on Apple’s “wish list” of concessions, which also includes a 15 year tax holiday on imported parts and equipment as well as multiple waivers on import duties.
It obviously doesn’t mean that the country’s government is going to budge on any one or all of these wish list items but they are surely going to come up during the negotiations and the two stakeholders will sit together and figure something out.
If Apple is allowed to import refurbished iPhones in order to sell them in India, it would be the first for any electronics vendor to do that in the country. This isn’t the first time that Apple has tried asking the Indian government permission to sell refurbished iPhones, it was actually shot down in May last year.
Being able to sell refurbished iPhones will go a long way in helping Apple further expand its reach in the Indian market. It remains to be seen if the government is going to budge on this.
Filed in . Read more about iPhone.