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Apple makes bid for larger slice of India pie

Naresh Kumar Thapa, acting managing director of Apple's SAARC region operations, has been quoted as saying that the company has identified publishing, education, corporations, multimedia, entertainment and the

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household sectors as focus areas where Apple's products, technologies and services could be effectively marketed.

With a chunk of the publishing segment business comprising pre-press jobs, the company has identified the area as a core growth segment. The value of the domestic publishing market is estimated to be worth $130 million annually.

To tap it, Apple is planning to introduce several innovative products at regular intervals.

Slated for launch next month, the iMac (Internet Mac) is expected to open the doors for the medium-range publishing market. "We are confident of catering to a chunk of the medium-range publishing market at the entry-level,'' Thapa claimed, while pointing out that in the publishing segment, the company's rate of growth has surpassed the growth of the publishing industry itself.

Besides the publishing and education markets, Apple has identified the home segment as a core area. Interestingly, the home market segment has lately registered a consistent growth of over 60 per cent annually.

According to Thapa, buyers in the home segment prefer to buy international brands despite the high price. "We certainly cannot compete with local players who sell assembled products. Instead, our products, which are subjected to high rates of duties, are accompanied with several goodies.''

In India, Apple products are sold through authorised distributors and resellers. Besides tying up with partners for multimedia and hardware training, the company has set up a technology centre to showcase its publishing and multimedia technologies.

Its Indian Language Kit enables users to work in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Gujarati and Punjabi.

Lately, developing animation products for the Indian film industry has emerged as a key focus area for the company.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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