Apple ropes in Softbank's retail arm Brightstar for big Indian expansion plans

Apple has big plans for the Indian market – which its late chief Steve Jobs once dismissed as unimportant - and is targeting sales of 7 million units per year by 2018.

The Cupertino-based giant had achieved the mark of 1 million units in the fiscal year which concluded in 30 September 2014.

To implement its grand scheme Apple has appointed Softbank-owned Brightstar as a retail partner.

Brightstar is one of the biggest retailers involved in the distribution of mobile phones and other devices to more than 200 telecom carriers in over 50 countries with revenue of around $11 billion.

Apple currently sells its devices through Redington and Ingram Micro, which supply products to regional distributors, multi-product trade channels, Apple Premium Re-seller stores and Apple Authorized Reseller outlets. Redington accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the Apple product sales in India.

Apple's expansion plan will include an opening of more than 500 Apple stores with a focus on small town cities like Nagpur, Amritsar, Pathankot, Moga, Trichy, Nasik and Coimbatore.

Apple is planning to invest in direct advertisement, while earlier the advertisement was handled by the retail partners only. This is a rare move by Apple as it is done only in big markets like US and UK.

 The company has joined the band-wagon of brands that have aggressive plans of expansion in the Indian market.