After several rounds of meeting with the Indian government, Apple has now officially announced assembling of iPhones in India. The move comes after the meeting of Apple CEO and PMO of India. The sources familiar with the matter said that Apple could start manufacturing the high-end iPhones in India, as early as 2019. Sources confirmed that the first set of products will involve manufacturing of the iPhone X family.
Apple has announced an investment of around $356 millions for expanding the manufacturing unit in India. Additionally, this manufacturing unit will create up to 25000 technical jobs locally in India. Apple will be relying on Foxconn, a Taiwan based electronic solutions with manufacturing units in China, Japan, Brazil, India, and several other countries. Foxconn will assemble the iPhones in its Indian manufacturing plant.
Currently, the iPhones are imported in India from the Foxconn manufacturing plant in China. The majority of iPhones are manufactured in Foxconn’s technology park in China. Reuters was the first agency to confirm the news of Apple’s manufacturing iPhones in India.
What Does It Mean For Customers?
Production of iPhones locally in India will bring down the rates. The cost cut in manufacturing and importing the iPhones will be the reason of price drop. Till now, Apple has been selling the iPhones in India at a very high cost, because of the import duties and customs. Hence, the Indian customers will be for the benefited by the new manufacturing unit of Apple in India.
India has been one of the best-performing markets for iPhones. Hence, this step will further boost the demand for iPhones in India. Apple was in talks to set up the plant a year ago. However, the decision was being delayed continuously.
Other Opinions
Besides Economical, Apple’s move can also be influenced by political reasons. Experts are of the opinion that this move has been taken in lights of the ongoing Trade War between the US and China. Apple is taking a safe turn by setting up the manufacturing unit in India and reducing its dependence on the manufacturing hubs present on the land of China. This is because US-based companies are currently at high risk of facing some harsh sanctions by China. Any such sanction by China can result in shooting up of iPhone prices in various countries. Hence, manufacturing in India is a very clever move. Foxconn’s confession of high operation cost in China was already in news.
The move can also be because of the high demand of flagship versions. Foxconn had commented that it was not being able to fulfill the demand of the latest flagship devices of iPhone X family. Hence, the growing demand and saturated supply chain might be the reason for setting up a manufacturing plant in India itself.
