MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) normally deft management of government relations is being put to a fresh high-stakes test.
FILE PHOTO: Apple iPhone X mobile phones are seen at an Apple reseller store in Mumbai, India July 27, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
For almost two years, Apple has battled India’s telecom regulator over a demand that it allow the use of the government’s anti-spam app. Non-compliance, the watchdog threatened last month, could result in phones being “derecognized” from the country’s networks, meaning they would no longer function.
It is just one of several headaches the Cupertino, California-based company is nursing in India - a market it calls a top priority but where it has just 1 percent share.
Apple has not gotten the tax breaks it has sought for suppliers to expand local manufacturing - key if it is to avoid steep import duties that have made its iPhones, already pricey for many Indian consumers, even more expensive.
Local content prerequisites have also stopped the U.S. tech giant from opening its own stores. The lack of direct sales channels has helped make it vulnerable to discounting and prompted it to recently embark on a major overhaul of its retail strategy.
At the heart of its latest tussle with the government is India’s pervasive problem with spam and nuisance calls - one the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is trying to counter with an app that it wants all phone makers to install.
The app has been available on the Android store since 2016, but Apple in March told Reuters that TRAI’s app “as envisioned violates the privacy policy of the App Store.”
The new version of its iPhone operating system, expected
