CEO Tim Cook says, Apple is here to stay for the next thousand years in India!May 21(AZINS) Apple CEO Tim Cook was on a four-day India tour this week. On his first official visit to India, the 55-year-old chief of Cupertino-based tech giant sat down for an interview with NDTV and discussed the company’s focus on new growth markets like India and others.

In conversation with NDTV's Vikram Chandra, the CEO stated that he came to India to learn about the people and culture and how business is done. He was also keen to know what people are interested in and their hopes and aspirations as well. He says, “Apple has a bright future for retail in India. We will sell pre-owned phones with new warranty. We want India to have best Apple products.”

When asked about China, Cook stated that India is in fact, different than China. For our country, announcements about the apps development facility in Bengaluru and Maps Development Centre in Hyderabad were “just the beginning.” Tim Cook also spoke about the company’s retail stores in the country.

He explains, “We’re taking a step back on India and taking a look at India holistically… for us that means getting the developer community moving on iOS. We’ve announced an accelerator which will help do that… We’re also looking at India from a number of other points of view like Apple Retail… we see a future for Apple retail in India.”

On being asked about Apple's plans to compete with affordable Android smartphones in the market, he clearly stated, “Again, we're about making the best and that means we're not going to play in some of these other price points. We would never make a product that we're not proud of.”

One of the biggest topics of discussion was on the refurbished iPhone debate in India. “It’s certified pre-owned… it’s like a new phone because it has a warranty for a new phone. Yes we would like to do that here. We do in the US, we do it in Japan, we do it in many different countries around the world,” he explained.

He also said that the company is keen introduce the company’s mobile pay and digital wallet service Apple Pay in India. He claims, “We've met some of the banks to understand their perspective on mobile payment and I think there is an interesting opportunity there and I'm very encouraged with what I have heard.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook believes, “at our core, we are about simplicity, we are about taking complex technology and bringing it you so that you can do things you haven't done before.” He says, “we don't view ourselves as powerful, we are about empowering people.”