Apple Inc. (AAPL) CEO To Visit Turkey For $4B iPad Deal

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)CEO Tim Cook along with some topline executive are expected to visit Turkey in February to lock in a deal concerning iPads in education worth over $4 billion. The executives are also expected to visit the first physical Apple store in the country.

Turkey FATIH Project

Emlakkulisi.com, a publication of Turkey revealed that next year Cook will hold a meeting with President Abdullah Gul over the country’s “FATIH Project,” which aims at bringing modern computing devices into classrooms instead of blackboards and textbooks.

Earlier, in May, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey visited Apple headquarters to gain an insight on the most advanced technological developments of the company before dealing with Apple for its “FATIH Project”

Initially, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) would supply 10.6 million tablets for the project, and in the second phase an additional purchase of 2 to 2.5 million iPads could be made, according to the report. The government is trying to carry forward the project for four years, and it is expected to cost around $3 and $4 billion.

The report also noted that Tim Cook would visit the first physical store of Apple in Instanbul’s Zorlu Center, which is due to open next year. The store is stretched over 21,500 square foot and is adorned with a cube-like structure made up of glass similar to the famous Fifth Avenue store in New York.

Apple may need more contracts

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is making all efforts to penetrate in the emerging markets apart from the United States and Europe. Prior to Apple’s brick and mortar store, the company is already running its online store in Turkey.

The deal with the Turkey would be important for the iPhone maker as it is expected that big smartphone makers like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung would lose some market share in developing markets like India and China in the wake of intense competition from local players. The domestic companies like Xiaomi in China and Micromax in India are already hurting the big names in the domestic turf.

In China, Apple stands at fourth place amongst the handset companies, and it already has a user base of around 450 million, who are the subscribers of China Telecom Service and Unicom. The number stands at far more than the United States, but the offerings from Apple on these network carriers are limited.

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