Apple is set to make Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan its brand ambassador for India, according to a local report yesterday.

Indian tech website PC Tablet cited sources familiar with the matter, claiming that the announcement will be made when Apple launches its latest iPhone models in India later this year.

sania-srk-cook-m

Tim Cook with stars Shah Rukh Khan (left) and Sania Mirza. (Source: Instagram)

Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a private dinner at Khan's home during his recent weeklong visit to the country. Before the Bollywood star-studded dinner, Cook was also escorted around movie sets by the president of India's Film and TV Producers Guild, Mukesh Bhatt, who said Cook was "keen to see how Apple could partner with the Indian film industry".

Apple has a number of brand ambassadors around the world, including Brazilian-born FC Barcelona soccer player Neymar and NBA player Steph Curry.

Last month it was reported that Apple is close to signing England international soccer player Raheem Sterling as its figurehead of Apple's promotional work around the European Championship this summer.

Tag: India

Top Rated Comments

Dilster3k Avatar
103 months ago
So glad to see Tim's trip wasn't in vain. /sarcasm
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Crosscreek Avatar
103 months ago
India is cautious of a company that seems to take advantage of every country it does business with.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MH01 Avatar
103 months ago
What is an apple ambassador ? Just innovate , and make awesome products, enough of this celebrity pitches to push sales.

Apple is going down the Beats track, make so so products and invest in celebrities to push them, worked a charm pushing out junk headphones at first. And beats has not innovated anything in years either .
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2457282 Avatar
103 months ago
I am waiting for a Bollywood dance style commercial as a result of this collaboration. That would be kinda awesome. :D
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DoctorKrabs Avatar
103 months ago
Ambassadors help sell product. Need more reasons than that?
I remember back when Apple fans were proud of how the products could "sell themselves" unlike the competition that needed to beg you and try very hard to convince you to buy theirs instead.

http://www.netpaths.net/blog/steve-jobs-apple-doesn’t-do-market-research/

So yes. Apple now needs ambassadors to help sell product. And that's a shame.

India has 1.27B people. Apple are going after those humans with another human.
So India has 1.3 billion people to help Apple grow even more? 60% of them are living on $4 a day. India only has a middle class of around 300 million, but Indian middle class is American poor. The Indian middle class makes $16 to $20 per day. That's 300 million people. There are another 600 million that make less than that.

Apple trying to manufacture in India with their well-known relations with Chinese labor sure looks great for the growth of India, right? Americans are clamoring for a $15 hourly wage while Indians making $20 a day are the Indian middle class, so we can be sure that Indian manufacturing workers making the iPhones will be getting that "Indian middle class" pay.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chatter Avatar
103 months ago
Apple still (hopelessly?) trying to get India to allow it to open stores and sell refurbished phones. Wouldn't it be great if Apple spent the time & money spent lobbying India on R&D for more innovative products instead?
Your comment makes no sense.
1. A brand ambassador can help you sell more phones (for ex) through your existing channels (in India and other countries). Its not always about lobbying for opening stores.
2. Apple can spend time on R&D and on lobbying at the same time. It's not exactly a 1-person company.

In summary, your comment makes no sense.
[doublepost=1464953737][/doublepost]
India is cautious of a company that seems to take advantage of every country it does business with.
Or it could be the laws pushed by the country on all foreign entrants....but let's go with the "Apple is evil and the world is cautious" narrative. Makes much more sense that way.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature 1

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...