Apparently confirming earlier speculation, The Times of India reports that Apple will open a "massive tech support facility" in the city of Bangalore in southern India.
Reportedly, up to 1,500 people (later 3,000 people) may be employed to provide AppleCare, as well as a product development team of 100 to 200 engineers. The facility, initially 150,000 square feet and later expanding to 300,000 square feet, is to be operational by the end of this year.
The centre will offer its troubleshooting services for the entire range of Apple products, including the likes of iPod (MP3 players), desktop (e Mac, Power Mac etc), notebooks (ibook, Powerbook), peripherals, software, servers.
The service portfolio spans help desk support for customers, consulting by Apple technical experts, addressing basic hardware failures over the phone and support for storage deployment, among other features.
Bangalore is sometimes referred to as "India's Silicon Valley" and many major U.S. corporations have facilities there.