As part of Apple CEO Tim Cook's first visit to India, the company has announced that it will open a new iOS app design and development accelerator in India's Silicon Valley Bengaluru by early 2017.

SEE ALSO: Tim Cook to make surprise visit to India tomorrow

The new centre is a major step towards Apple's attempt to expands its share in the world's fastest-growing smartphone market. The new centre will attract and encourage the country's developers to make apps for iOS.

“India is home to one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the opening of this new facility in Bengaluru, we’re giving developers access to tools which will help them create innovative apps for customers around the world.”

The centre will provide support to Indian developers in the form of weekly briefings by Apple experts and one-on-one app reviews. It will also offer guidance on Swift, Apple's programming language for developing apps for iOS, Apple TV, Mac OS and Apple Watch. Earlier this year Apple had announced an iOS app development centre in Naples, Italy.

During his maiden visit, Cook is also expected to focus on increasing Apple's revenues from India, after the company posted its first-ever decline in global iPhone sales in the last quarter. With slowing demand in the West and even China, India had acquired greater importance for the technology giant. While Apple has recorded brisk iPhone sales in the last year, it still has only a 2% share in the country's price-sensitive smartphone market.

"Apple’s investment in Bengaluru through its iOS Development Accelerator will have far-reaching effects for the area’s rapidly growing and highly talented developer community,” said NASSCOM President R Chandrashekhar. “The skills and training they gain through this effort will significantly improve their app design and help them reach a broader market."

Cook is expected to announce a technology development centre in Hyderabad, which was announced in February and is expected to work on Apple maps. The company is also likely to get the Indian government's approval on opening its first retail stores in the country. He will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he had also met in the US last year.

Cook has already compared India's large and growing market to China. “I sort of view India as where China was seven to 10 years ago,” he said last month. However, its growth in the country is likely to take time. Today's announcement is one step towards introducing more local content for Indians.

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