How Tim Cook went about mixing business with pleasure on his India trip

Turned focus on non-iPhone Apple products in his engagements with sportspersons, artists, designers

If Apple chief Tim Cook’s Twitter timeline on his India visit is anything to go by, then one can safely say he believes in mixing business with pleasure. Or even that, for Cook, leisure too is all about business.

When not welcoming excited crowds to the Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi or attending high-profile meetings, Cook was found engaging with creators, educationists, and sportspersons. After each of these engagements, he tweeted about the experience, carefully positioning the Apple products in his tweets.

The products he focused on did not include the iPhone, which has already caught the imagination of Indians. Instead, what he put out there on his Twitter handle, which has 14 million followers, was the Apple Watch, the MacBook Pro, and the iPad —  products the company will need Indians to engage with more than they currently do.

Sample this: After the grand opening of Apple BKC in Mumbai, he rushed off to Hyderabad to meet badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and players Saina Nehwal, Srikanth Kidambi, Chirag Shetty, and Parupalli Kashyap. The tweet that followed: “We served, smashed, and talked about how Apple Watch helps them train!”

Then came interactions with founders of Kiddopia, a learning app for pre-schoolers, and then a meeting with Indian musician Maalavika Manoj.

“Thank you to the enormously talented @Malimanojmusic for showing me all the ways you’re using Apple products to create music — from songwriting with iPhone to developing unique beats on MacBook Pro. I loved the sneak peek of your new song in Spatial Audio!” he later tweeted.

On his last day in Mumbai, Cook also met students at the Indian School of Design and Innovation. “Thanks for sharing how you create those amazing designs using the iPad!” he tweeted after the interaction.

Cook’s time in India has been carefully planned to tap into its growing potential as a market for Apple.

The appetite for Apple products is getting bigger in India. According to Counterpoint Research, the share of android smartphones fell from 97 per cent in Q1FY21 to 94 per cent in Q4FY22. Meanwhile, the share of Apple smartphones rose from 3 per cent in Q1FY21 to 6 per cent in Q4FY22.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Apple rose to the fifth spot in the traditional Indian personal computer (PC) market in Q4FY22 for the first time with a 5.4 per cent market share. The market comprises desktops, notebooks, and workstations. HP led the segment with 32.6 per cent market share.

Meanwhile, according to IDC, India’s wearable market exited 2022 with a strong 46.9 per cent year-on-year growth. But Apple does not feature in the top five players in the segment.

Apple is clearly primed for expansion. And Cook’s leisure time has been all about positioning the brand for consumers to look beyond the iPhone.

When he landed in New Delhi on April 19, Cook visited Lodhi Art District. He lauded the St+Art India Foundation for beautifying the area with murals and met artist Dattaraj Naik at the location. Later he wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to the St+art India Foundation and so many amazing artists for capturing Indian life so powerfully. And thank you to Dattaraj Naik for showing me how you design your murals on iPad.”

Arjun Bahl, co-founder of St+Art India, said the visit shows how important the brand is for the designing community. “India is home to a huge number of creators and designers,” he said. “Cook’s visit to the art district just shows how imperative the brand is for the community and how it enables them to push the envelope.”

“Today, Apple’s tools — be it the iPad, iMac Pro or the Pencil — are critical to the design community,” he added. “There are many designers today who operate in the digital space to sketch and design mood boards before they are translated into murals or paintings.”

Cook would want them all to bite into Apple.