IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 43

IPMAT Indore 2023 previous year question on RC Detail and Fact Based Questions, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

RC Detail and Fact Based QuestionsReading Comprehension - Question TypesMultiple choiceMedium

RC passage 2: Passage 2 – Apple’s retail stores and the Indian market — this question belongs to a set. Read the full set with all 6 questions →

Read the following passage and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the passage.

Two Apple stores in Delhi and in Mumbai – opened in April 2023. Until now, Indians could buy Apple products in the country either online or through a vast network of what the company calls ‘premium resellers’. Will the new-found ability to sell products directly to customers in India – the world’s second largest smartphone market – impact its fortunes here? Apple has long tried to open physical retail stores in India. In 2019, the Indian government relaxed some investment rules, exempting companies selling ‘cutting-edge’ items, such as Apple’s iPhones and iPads, from restrictions.

Apple first launched an online store in India through a website which allows users to request for customised products. Apple’s decision to open physical stores in India could be the next step in its branding strategy. It is not as if this will change Apple’s sales in any dramatic way, but it is still a key milestone, one that will allow Apple to deliver to Indian customers the full Apple experience.

The iPhone is still an aspirational product in the price-sensitive Indian market. When you launch an Apple store, you are basically giving a premium experience to your premium consumers. It might not pull up sales, but it pulls more people into the Apple ecosystem.

Setting up an Apple store in India is also a statement that the country is now big enough for Apple to be actually interested in expanding operations here, and comes at a time when India is rising fast as a manufacturing base for the iPhone. Apple first began making a lower-end model of the iPhone in India in 2017. Last year, it began producing its latest model of iPhone 14 in the country, which now accounts for 5 percent of total iPhone production. For years, Apple had relied on China’s sophisticated manufacturing network to produce the bulk of its products. But analysts predict that by 2025, a quarter of all iPhones the company makes could be produced in India. Apple was already making between 5-7 percent of its products in India, and they are targeting to go up to 25 percent of their manufacturing capacity.

In 2022, Apple had a 60 percent market share in the Indian ‘premium smartphone’ market – which refers to mobiles that cost INR 40,000 or more, ahead of Samsung’s 21 percent share. Apple is doing well across categories. The real issue will be to pull consumers to these flagship centres without alienating the partner sellers.

Apple has finally understood that India’s premium market is growing, so why not be serious about it.

The Apple retail stores in India will

A
drive healthy competition in the smartphone market.
B
bring in more customers and increase sales.
C
not materially impact sales of iPhones.
D
not have any impact on Apple’s image.

Pick an option, then check.

Answer & solution

Answer: Option C

Where the passage says it. Twice, in almost the same words:

“It is not as if this will change Apple’s sales in any dramatic way, but it is still a key milestone…”

“It might not pull up sales, but it pulls more people into the Apple ecosystem.”

Why the others fail:

(a) Healthy competition — never discussed. The passage compares market shares but says nothing about competition being driven by the stores.

(b) Increase sales — the direct opposite of the two sentences above.

(d) No impact on Apple’s image — reversed. The stores are explicitly about branding: “the next step in its branding strategy”, delivering “the full Apple experience”. The image effect is the whole point.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. The passage states this claim twice — a reliable signal that it will be tested. When a writer repeats a point in different words, mark it.

Note the structure the writer uses both times: not sales, but something else (a milestone, the ecosystem). Options (b) and (d) each take one half of that contrast and flip it. The correct option keeps the “not sales” half intact.

IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 43

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