Can Apple be the new GE for Indian IT?

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Editor's note: Before taking over as CEO of Apple Inc. in 2011, Tim Cook’s claim to fame within the company was his overhaul of its supply chain operations. Cook arrived at the firm in 1998 with “a mandate to clean up the atrocious state of Apple's manufacturing, distribution, and supply apparatus”, Fortune magazine reported. He tightened supply, shuttered factories and focused on Chinese and Taiwanese outsourcers. Today, the Cupertino-based company relies on an intricate network of thousands of third-party suppliers and contract manufacturers around the world, including Foxconn Technology Group and Quanta Computer Inc. Apple spends tens of billions of dollars every year with these companies to bring out some of its best-selling products, from iPhones to MacBooks, and the extent of its outsourcing and global supply chain is well documented. Less attention, however, has been paid to how much Apple spends on outsourcing software services—especially with Indian IT services companies. Till now, there has been no figure reported on Apple’s IT spend. Based on information gathered from nine current and four former industry executives, we estimate that Indian IT services companies …