Technology company Jaffer Business Systems (JBS) and Mercantile, one of Apple’s authorised distributors, have announced a partnership to make official Apple products more accessible to businesses across Pakistan. Until now, enterprise adoption of Apple devices in Pakistan suffered from a lack of direct support, driving organisations to rely on informal markets or indirect sales channels rather than authorized, warranty-backed procurement routes. Nauman Durrani, CEO Pakistan and Senior Vice President of SAGE Mercantile, said companies could save up to Rs80,000 per handset by purchasing Apple products such as iPhones through formal, PTA-approved channels rather than the grey channel via locations such as Dubai, a price gap that has historically pushed many Pakistani businesses toward informal import routes despite the compliance and warranty risks involved.
Through this partnership, companies will be able to source Apple products in bulk rather than purchasing through retail outlets in places like Saddar, enabling a better customer experience and cost savings, Durrani added. The arrangement extends Mercantile’s existing enterprise-focused partnerships in Pakistan, following similar agreements the distributor has struck with telecom operators including Jazz and PTCL Group over the past two years to expand access to official Apple devices with proper warranty coverage and after-sales support. For JBS specifically, bringing Apple into its portfolio marks an expansion beyond its existing enterprise technology offerings into hardware distribution backed by formal manufacturer channels.
This partnership would enable centralised device enrollment and security policy enforcement essential for banking and corporate data safety, addressing a specific enterprise IT requirement that informal or unofficial device purchases typically cannot support, since grey-market devices often lack the management framework integration needed for large-scale corporate deployment. There would also be localised after-sales support through Mercantile Care service centres in Islamabad, Lahore, and soon Karachi, giving enterprise customers a formal support network comparable to what individual consumers already access through Mercantile’s existing retail and telecom partnerships.
“To build modern AI applications and workflows, compute power needs to extend directly down to mobile devices. Bringing Apple into our portfolio rounds out our tech stack and growth strategy for businesses,” said Waqar-ul-Islam, CEO of JBS, framing the partnership as setting a new operational baseline for how the company approaches enterprise hardware alongside its existing technology and workflow offerings. As more Pakistani businesses look to formalize their device procurement and management practices, particularly in regulated sectors like banking where data security compliance is closely scrutinized, the JBS-Mercantile partnership adds another formal channel to a market that has historically relied heavily on informal import routes for premium enterprise hardware.
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