I saw the news that Apple was pulling out of India the other day, and - since it was call center/support related, chalked it up as another example of management actually hearing the tooth grinding of their customers. Apparently, I was wrong, as Paul McDougall of InformationWeek has analyzed it and come to a different answer - he relates it to IBM's expansion there:

IBM is betting big that India will for years to come be the center of excellence for software development and related work like IT services and help desk support. With this in mind, IBM wants to flat out own India's technology landscape and it's apparently CEO Sam Palmisano's belief that half measures won't do. There's too much potential competition down there on the Subcontinent.

And Apple?

Apple's decision to shut down its services center in India just three months after its opening is the right one only in so far as the company really had no other choice. The Mac and iPod maker realized it's just too late to the party in India. There are now too many companies chasing Indian IT talent to try and build a base there from scratch. In all likelihood, IBM's plans to spend billions more in the country put the final nail in Apple's own Indian ambitions.

Hmm. So India is full, what with all those IBM suits running about - there's no way Apple can get any kind of operation running there, so they may as well give up. Well. It's really too bad that Google never happened here in the US, what with the IT sector being full and all - the talent was elsewhere, so Google just dried up and blew away, right Paul?

Perhaps Not.

There's a phrase Paul might want to examine: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". Perhaps Apple's pullout has no inherent relationship to IBM's actions there. I seriously doubt that anything like this happened in Cupertino:

Jobs: So why can't we hire more smart folks in India?
Staffer: Sorry Steve, IBM hired them all. That <expletive deleted> Palmisano at IBM hired every last IT guy on the subcontinent

Jobs: <expletive deleted>! Just pull out then, it's all we can do
Staffer: Yes sir!

That seems to be how McDougall sees it. All I can think of to say about that? *LOL*