Rushabh Doshi

Local production will give Apple the leeway to play with the margins of their distributors and indirectly price their phones lower.

The falling rupee is going to impact prices, vendors like Xiaomi who operate so close to cost are definitely going to be the first ones who are going to be impacted.

For Xiaomi, its major business is in China and India so it operates in the renminbi and Indian rupee — both of which have fallen against the Rushabh Doshi dollar, so it is very important for them to start correcting their prices.

There was a huge challenge with the stigma attached to Chinese brands initially, a lot of new vendors are testing out online retail first, trying to see if the brand is picking up in India and then ramping up their operations based on the feedback they get from the consumer base.

It's been a long road, apple has been wanting to do this in the past, but regulation had not allowed it.