Apple Plans New Development Center In Hyderabad, India, By July 2016: Reports


Apple Inc, one of the world’s largest information technology companies, is likely to start a large technology development center in India by mid 2016, reports the Business Standard. According to sources cited by the newspaper report, Apple’s new technology development center, the first of its kind outside the United States, would be set up in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Apple was reportedly in talks with senior government officials from the country regarding this setup and it seems all formalities to set up the same have been completed. The development has also been confirmed by a senior official from the Indian government. If all goes well, Apple would have the new facility up and running by July this year, the report added.

Apple’s new development center would be located in a notified IT special economic zone. The facility will sprawl across 250,000 square feet of area in the Waverock IT towers located in the Gachibowli area of the city. This is located around 26 kms from the city center and already houses several companies including the likes of Accenture and DuPont. The entire complex is spread across 1.5 million square feet and was developed in two phases that started off in 2010. The newest phase was completed in 2014. The facility where Apple plans to open its facility is owned by consultancy firm Tishman Speyer. Apple and Tishman Speyer are expected to announce the deal in the next few weeks, reports say.

“Apple, as well as Tishman Speyer, would come out with a statement once the ongoing negotiations concluded,” an official told Business Standard.

If it starts functioning, this would be Apple’s first development center outside of the United States. It remains unclear as to what Apple plans to do with this development center in Hyderabad. It is, however, expected to pool in local talent from India which has a large number of graduates from the engineering and IT background.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Apple opened a center in India. Nearly a decade ago, Apple had a functioning technical support facility in India. However, it was shut down by the company in 2006. This center was located in the city of Bangalore, widely known as the Silicon Valley of India.

Hyderabad Apple
A view of the Hyderabad Financial District By Yedla70 – Picture is taken in Hyderabad India, CC BY-SA 3.0, [Wikimedia Commons]
The arrival of Apple with its development facility in India is expected to boost the image of Hyderabad as an IT-friendly city. While it has been an IT hotspot for quite sometime now, it has been sort of overshadowed by Bangalore over the years. Hyderabad does have its share of high-profile clients, though. The other giants that have a formidable presence in Hyderabad include Google and Facebook. Dell also has a huge presence in the city. Ride hail company Uber is also building its largest international office in Hyderabad. India is already Uber’s second largest market outside of the U.S. They plan to invest over $50 million in the next few years as they ramp up operations across the country. Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart and its arch rival Amazon also have offices in the city and Flipkart is planning a larger center there in the coming years.

According to reports, Apple chose Hyderabad over other cities in the country because of cheaper real estate and a calmer political environment there following the creation of the state of Telangana. Google has also announced recently that it would set up its own campus in Hyderabad spread across seven acres. The land for Google’s Hyderabad campus was provided by the local state government.

[Image By peculiar235MindSpace campus – color balance and levels modified: added magenta and darkened slightly, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons]

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