Apple is planning to greatly increase the number of stores selling its products in India, with a target of 200 stores by 2015. According to The Economic Times, Apple franchisees have revealed that the company has asked them to scale up their presence in India by opening more stores selling its products. Currently there are 17 franchisees in India that are running 65 exclusive Apple stores, known as Apple Premium Resellers, and Apple hopes to triple that number in two years time.

Apple has decided to fund the new Indian stores by reimbursing the total amount (estimated at Rs. 1 crore per store) to the franchisees over a year. iPhone makers will find it very difficult to open its own stores in India because of Government regulations. According to these regulations, any product being sold by the manufacturer through its own single brand store should either be made in India or should at least have 30% of its components sourced locally.

With the help of retail schemes that offer premium Apple products to Indian consumers through installments, and a bigger marketing push, Apple has managed to rack up a 400% jump in its total sales in India, as revealed by an IDC report released in February. The report also showed that Apple had jumped to the second spot in terms of revenue in the Indian smartphone market.