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Apple to Open $25 Million Technology Development Site in India [Updated]

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Apple plans to open a $25 million technology development site that'll span 250,000 square feet in Hyderabad, India, according to ZDNet. The site will open its "innovation center" in June of this year before ramping up to full operations by the end of the year.
The new centre will be built on 250,000 square feet of land in the real estate firm Tishman Speyer's WaveRock facility at Hyderabad's IT corridor at a cost of $25 million (150 crore rupees). It is anticipated to create 4,500 jobs for locals. IT majors such as Infosys, Wipro, Microsoft, and Cognizant have already set up their offices in the IT corridor.
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ZDNet says the development center will be used to work on maps. Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary to IT in Telangana, the state in which Hyderabad resides, told ZDNet that Apple "has not looked at cities only in India, but across many places in Europe and other parts of the world."

Rajan notes that Apple choosing Hyderabad is a "strong endorsement of the city as a major IT hub in the country." Microsoft also has offices in the city and plans to expand its operations while Google has pledged to open a headquarters in Hyderabad, making it the biggest technology campus in South Asia.

In 2006, Apple opened a massive support center in Bangalore, but closed it shortly thereafter. While Apple keeps most of its design and development within the United States, it does own several research and development sites around the world, including in Israel and Ireland. In late 2014, the company announced that it would open an R&D center in Yokohama, Japan. In January, Apple announced that it would open iOS development centers in Europe, starting in Italy.

On a whole, India is becoming increasingly important to Apple's business. Last July, the company noted that its growth in India was over 90 percent while Apple's sales in the country topped $1 billion in a fiscal year for the first time. Tim Cook has also mentioned that Apple was interested in expanding its manufacturing base in the country. Currently, Apple is close to gaining approval to open retail stores in India.

Update: Apple has confirmed its plans for the site in Hyderabad, saying the center will indeed be focused on maps development and house over 150 employees.

Article Link: Apple to Open $25 Million Technology Development Site in India [Updated]
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/12/apple-india-hyderabad-development/
Bhatu

Bhatu

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Apr 1, 2013
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Correct me if I am wrong:
"Tishman Speyer's WaveRock facility at Hyderabad's IT corridor at a cost of $25 million" where Apple will be one of the companies to have a development center. Apple is not planning to open a $25 million technology development center.

Since its a foreign company, if they want to open official Apple Stores they'll have to invest upto 30% for R&D in India.
 
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garirry

garirry

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No "political offence" intended, but I don't get Apple's focus on developing countries like China or India. It's like the country's population is the only thing they care about other than if they are the US itself.
 
convergent

convergent

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garirry said:
No "political offence" intended, but I don't get Apple's focus on developing countries like China or India. It's like the country's population is the only thing they care about other than if they are the US itself.
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If they have a greater presence in a country they become more of a domestic vendor vs totally importing. Some of this is obviously perception. India and China has the two largest populations in the world and represent a huge opportunity.

My company has a large office in that part of Hyderabad... I was just there a couple of weeks ago and drove by the Microsoft, Infosys, and Cognizant offices. It's quite a culturally different place.
 
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kdarling

kdarling

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garirry said:
No "political offence" intended, but I don't get Apple's focus on developing countries like China or India. It's like the country's population is the only thing they care about other than if they are the US itself.
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In this case, it's probably about cheap English reading workers.

They can use the center to enter all sorts of map data.
 
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Kaibelf

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garirry said:
No "political offence" intended, but I don't get Apple's focus on developing countries like China or India. It's like the country's population is the only thing they care about other than if they are the US itself.
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Because Apple, like most adults, have accepted that the United States isn't the only country on earth with people who have potential to contribute to the human race.
 
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NtDs90

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It would kill Apple and other US companies to throw down $25mil for these places here in the US? I understand the need to get their foot in the door in India. But US citizens need jobs to.
 
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szw-mapple fan

szw-mapple fan

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garirry said:
No "political offence" intended, but I don't get Apple's focus on developing countries like China or India. It's like the country's population is the only thing they care about other than if they are the US itself.
Click to expand...

This is really about the size of the market. Investing in India means that Apple will have a more favorable position with the Indian government, making it easy for Apple to sell more products.
 
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CFreymarc

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Steve was dead set against outsourcing software development and kept it all right in The Loop. I hope this is just for localization and not core engineering.

There are also huge IP risks putting a development center in India no matter what security you have set.
 
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emm386

emm386

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Can't innovate anymore, my ass!
They now even have an innovation center?

Now, this will shut the critics up!
 
N

Nicksd84

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Kaibelf said:
Because Apple, like most adults, have accepted that the United States isn't the only country on earth with people who have potential to contribute to the human race.
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I think you missed the point. He was asking about focus outside the US as a whole and looking at more countries than just China and India.
 
MentalFloss

MentalFloss

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Kaibelf said:
Because Apple, like most adults, have accepted that the United States isn't the only country on earth with people who have potential to contribute to the human race.
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That statement is generally correct. But let's not forget that Indians ARE already a major part of the Apple workforce - in the US.

Every Indian who is good enough to go to the US will go to the US. Those left behind will try to go to the UK or Germany. Those left behind are... well... you do the math how good they are. That is not a prejudice. Every Indian will confirm that: The best Indians work abroad. The cheap Indians work in India.

Opening development centers in India is not about accepting the potential contributions of Indians - every tech company is doing that a thousand times over. It's only about sacrificing quality for lowest cost and raw quantity of resources.
 
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D

dlowings

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Looks like the shareholder got to Apple finally ... So long for the label "Designed in California" once they get hooked on the cheap labor it's all down hill.
 
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Rocketman

Rocketman

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Mums said:
This is just India forcing Apple to "invest" millions in their country as a bribe in order to get approval to open Apple stores. The money will go into bureaucrats' pockets. India is abysmally corrupt to the core.
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Brazil requires something similar. It is trade rules to force local operations. The extent to which Apple is willing to hire Indians anyway for some task they can also sell devices there without a huge extra tax. Since they cannot bring their money onshore due to excessive taxation in the USA, they might as well. One second after the tax rules are changed to encourage on-boarding foreign earnings and locating HQ in USA, Apple will cheerfully comply. Not one second sooner. So we have literally a million Chinese and Indians and Brazilians and Vietnamese and South Korean citizens being employed by Apple subsidiaries and vendors, HQ in Ireland. :D
 
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NtDs90

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Mums said:
This is just India forcing Apple to "invest" millions in their country as a bribe in order to get approval to open Apple stores. The money will go into bureaucrats' pockets. India is abysmally corrupt to the core.
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I fully agree.
 
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DFZD

DFZD

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MentalFloss said:
That statement is generally correct. But let's not forget that Indians ARE already a major part of the Apple workforce - in the US.

Every Indian who is good enough to go to the US will go to the US. Those left behind will try to go to the UK or Germany. Those left behind are... well... you do the math how good they are. That is not a prejudice. Every Indian will confirm that: The best Indians work abroad. The cheap Indians work in India.

Opening development centers in India is not about accepting the potential contributions of Indians - every tech company is doing that a thousand times over. It's only about sacrificing quality for lowest cost and raw quantity of resources.
Click to expand...


More expensive is generally better is the kind of mindset that really brought US to the place where it is now.

You're about to have Donald Trump as your president, your most followed celebrity is Kim Kardashian, your most beloved singer is Kanye West, and your children are shooting each other in schools. Your government accidentally created Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Wake up and smell the coffee. Indians are not just taking your low/mid level jobs, they are heading your companies (MS, Google, Softbank, Pepsi, Adobe, Mastercard, Sandisk) as well.
 
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A

ApfelKuchen

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It's politic for any multi-national to spend money where they earn money. You can't cart it all back to your home nation in a wheelbarrow or hire only people from your home nation and expect the rest of the world to like you - it's all "take"and no "give." "Home" for a multi-national has to become everywhere in the world.

There are smart people, brilliant people, all over the world. Not all of them have the desire or social and economic advantages necessary to travel overseas for school or employment. And, as with money, if you take all the talent and leave none...

So, whether government-mandated or not, corrupt or pure, "fair" tax rates at "home" or not, Apple and companies like it are likely to invest in facilities and people throughout the world. In big nations it'll be in a big way, in smaller nations it'll be harder to see.
 
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