In early June Patently Apple posted a report about Apple's supply chain will more than double the 20,000 employed in 2021. Foxconn and Wistron are expected to each hire 23,000 people each by the end of March 2022. We ended our report by noting that "With COVID still a factor in India, Apple's plans to open their first brick and mortar retail store in India has likely been delayed." Today that was confirmed.

The headline of the Indian Express this morning reads: "Apple’s first store in Mumbai delayed because of pandemic."

The launch of Apple’s first offline store in India, announced for this year for Mumbai, is delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company confirmed. Apple CEO Tim Cook had early last year announced that the company will open its first retail store in 2021.

In India, the more affordable iPhone SE is also helping rake in numbers along with the older iPhone 11 and the new iPhone 12 series. In fact, a recent CyberMedia Research report said Apple had clocked 140% growth in the Apple-June quarter powered by iPhone 11 which accounted for 60% of the shipments.