Tim Cook India Visit: Meetings with Sunil Mittal and Sunil Sood scheduled to discuss partnerships for wider distribution of Apple devices

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, who is on his maiden visit to India, is expected to meet top telcos to build partnerships for the distribution and sale of Apple devices.

As per sources, Cook believes that India's widening 4G network will not only boost the sales of iPhones in the country, but would also be beneficial for the sales of iPads and Apple TV.

With India’s biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel already offering 4G services and Reliance Jio Infocomm planning to roll out nationwide commercial 4G services by the end of this year, these two companies are pivotal for Apple's iPhone strategy.

A senior Bharti Airtel executive told ET that Apple and Airtel are in talks for a broader strategic tie-up, including options like distribution or selling through retail stores, offers on devices and personnel training.

There would be several proposals laid down on the table, and the one that works best for India would be decided upon by both companies.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, is supposed to meet Cook on Friday. Other than this, the Apple CEO is also going to meet Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood and Tata Consultancy Services CEO NChandrasekaran.

In the past, Cook has said that iPhone sales will significantly improve in India once high-speed 4G networks gain tractions.

"The thing that (has) held not only us back, perhaps but some others as well, is that the LTE rollout in India just really began this year, and so we'll begin to see some really good networks coming on in India," Cook had said in a conference call last month.

"That will unleash the power and capability of the iPhone in a way that an older network, a 2.5G, or even some 3G networks, would not do," he added.

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