Tim Cook told us in 2016 exactly what Apple would do in India. Nobody believed him.

As Tim Cook prepares to hand over the reins at Apple, his India playbook stands out: resist the pull of a cheap iPhone, invest in developers and retail, and bet on the country’s digital rise. What once looked like a misfit market is now a key growth engine, built not in quarters, or even years, but over decades through foundations that made the outcome seem inevitable.