Apple: Passage to India


Further evidence of Apple's thrust into Asia comes in the form of Cupertino's December 14 launch of its first authorised training center for video and broadcasting professionals in Chennai, India.

According to India's national newspaper, The Hindu, "he training centre boasts of the latest hardware and software solutions from Apple for advanced training in video technology and multimedia applications."

Speaking at the launch was Digital Video manager for Apple Asia Pacific, Peter Barber, said that Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools would be used for training of film makers, students and video pros.

Apple has 10 authorized training centres throughout Asia and three of these are in South Asia.

Analysis: As with Apple's presence at a FireWire forum in China some months back, it's clear Cupertino is serious about pushing into niche markets in emerging major economies - niche markets where the company has developed a strong presence in the rest of world.

In East and South Asia, however, the education market, one of Apple's strongholds, is tougher, despite high investment per capita in education in the Asian 'tiger' economiues. The competition there is very cheap PC boxes and ubiquitous Windows software. The difference is, unlike the US and Japan, where the Apple II provided a strong basis for Mac purchases in educaiton, that kind of Apple/Mac infrastructure doesn't exist in emerging economies.

As a result, it's clear Apple's started by targeting the high-end, hoping for some commensurate trickle-down effect. After all, IIRC, India produces many more films than Hollywood per annum.