Apple has commenced the commercial production of the iPhone XR locally at the Foxconn factory near Chennai after undertaking trials for many weeks, expressing a move up the manufacturing value chain in India. Earlier, the US giant limited manufacturing of its older models- iPhone 6s, SE, and assembling of iPhone in India.
Apple, which assembles the majority of its iPhones in China, is gradually moving its manufacturing units to other countries amidst the US-China trade dispute. The company aims to make India as one of its key global production hubs and has already planned to invest $1 billion to expand the local production of iPhones in India.
According to reports by ET, the tech firm aims at making India one of its key global production hubs. Additionally, the company has suggested plans to manufacture its latest iPhone 11 series at the Chennai-based plant. An Apple executive told ET that the company wouldn’t be dropping the prices despite saving around 20% in import duties.
Some of the component manufacturers of the iPhone are based in units across Germany, the US, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, UK, and China, amongst others. According to reports, Apple officially has only two companies that assemble the components of the iPads, iPhones, and iPods, namely Foxconn and Pegatron. Foxconn, Apple’s longest-running partner, has maintained factories in countries across the world like Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, and now, India.
iPhones Made in India
The government has been pushing Apple to manufacture its entire line-up of iPhones in India, in particular, the newer models such as the iPhone 11 series since it would help accelerate the Make in India initiative and win over more investors. With the Foxconn facility, now Apple has two manufacturing operations taking place in the country. Apple started assembling its older models in 2017 at its Bengaluru plant with Taiwan’s Wistron.
In the recent past, Apple planned to invest Rs 140 million in India to set up its first online retail platform and open three company-owned stores across major cities in the coming two to three years.
