MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) – Apple is in preliminary talks with Iranian distributors to possible enter the Persian market should Western sanctions be sufficiently eased, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Senior Apple officials have reportedly met with Iranian distributors at the company’s headquarters in London and discussed the possibility of having retail stores in Iran distribute Apple products. Instead of company-owned and operated Apple stores, the outlets would be midsize franchises selling only Apple products, according to the newspaper’s sources. Earlier, the company applied for this practice in European and Asian markets.
Currently Apple does not have any retails stores in Iran, but its products are available in the country through unofficial sellers.
Queried by AFP, Apple representatives declined to comment on the information.
Israel, the US and a series of other Western powers have imposed sanctions preventing companies from doing business with Iran. However, in May, sanctions preventing the sale of consumer communications technologies to Iran were lifted. The move was aimed at giving Iranians a way to communicate and receive information through social media services and other channels despite the restrictions of the authorities.
Apple is said to have consulted the US Treasury’s Office of Frozen Assets Control on how it could begin to work in Iran and establish relations with Iranian customers.
As noted by Wall Street Journal, Iran is an attractive market, as the country has a large middle class and a population of 77 million, 42 percent of whom are under the age of 25.
If Apple enters the market, it would join a number of companies seeking expansion in the large Iranian market which has been inaccessible for American companies since 1979, when the US imposed its first embargo against Iran.
