In a big boost for the city’s tech scene, Apple Inc. will soon be moving their Maps division to Hyderabad, with reports claiming that the tech giant will be investing as much as $25 million (about Rs 170 crore) into setting up a facility at Tishman Speyer’s WaveRock IT Campus at Gachibowli, near the Financial District.
Confirming the news to Deccan Chronicle, the Telangana state government’s IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan added that the company’s “top leadership” will be visiting the city soon to make the announcement official.
“Their entire Maps division will be set up here to develop their own mapping systems. The top leadership team will come down and make the announcement themselves. They’re waiting for a few approvals, such as the SEZ approval. Once that comes in from the Ministry of Commerce, only then will we know when exactly they’ll begin operations here,” Ranjan said.
Though Apple Maps represents only one division of the company’s many offerings — mobile phones, tablets, PCs, software and more — the move is said to generate around 4,500 jobs with full-scale operations said to commence from the end of this year, over 2,50,000 square feet of land. This will be the second time that Apple is bringing their operations to India. Their last outing, in Bengaluru, was shut down in 2006.
“For now, it’s early speculation but Apple could be out on the lookout for partnerships, especially within software ecosystems here. India is emerging as a strong talent-pool especially in the software side of business. This is perhaps what Apple is looking for,” said Anand Subramaniam from Zinnov Consulting, Bengaluru-based firm which specialises in helping major corporations start offshore operations in India.
