Wish I could find it, but I read an article recently about all the work Amazon is putting into India, working with small traders to handle ordering, payment and delivery in person etc when you can't rely on things like the postal service or easy access to online payment. It makes for an interesting contrast to what you describe as Apple's lack of local awareness.
> when you can't rely on things like the postal service
FYI, While Amazon is really serious about India and is doing some good work there, the Indian Postal Service is really good and reliable. In fact, even Amazon uses the indian post to deliver to remote areas where they don't have have amazon delivery offices.
Something I found interesting was the problem of many rural people not really having a formal address. It's so easy to take for granted that everyone has a house number and street with some kind of postal code, in in-fact that they even have a name with a given and family part. You can't always rely on these sorts of things because the world is big and wonderful and full of variety.
