A regional minister has stated that Apple will begin manufacturing its iPhone lineup in India starting this spring. With growth slowing in different regions, India happens to be the fastest-growing smartphone market, and given its population, demand for the iPhone will be able to spike there.
Apple Has Been Reported to Start Manufacturing Phase by the End of April – Bangalore Said to Be Primary Hub of Manufacturing iPhones
One report out of Bloomberg states that Bangalore is the primary hub of manufacturing iPhones. Bangalore is regarded as the tech capital and Priyank Kharge, the state’s information technology minister claims that Apple executives met him during the month of January and with this meeting, the timeline was confirmed.
“Apple’s iPhones will be made in Bangalore and all devices will be targeted at the domestic market. We did not discuss any other incentives. There is no component ecosystem in the country besides what Samsung has done in India. With Apple's China sales slowing down, it's opportunity India, and Apple might look at a different SKU, distribution and sourcing model to make it affordable to millions of aspiring customers.”
Taiwan’s Wistron will commence mass production of Apple’s iPhones, and as stated above, the operation is expected to take place at the end of April. Negotiations were obviously the key here and it looks like Apple is demanding a lot from the Indian government in order to start its work in the sub-continent. This would include a 15-year tax holiday in order to import components and equipment.
The information technology minister also said that if Apple was keen on setting up manufacturing locations in other parts of the country, the state would aid the tech giant in doing so. Producing iPhones locally would also benefit the region itself, ranging from state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and numerous jobs added.
Apple relies on several partners to mass-produce iPhones and setting up a base could also mean that the Cupertino tech firm would gain additional leverage for negotiating with those partners. This would allow Apple to make a higher profit on every iPhone sold. Currently, there is no information if other products from the company are going to be manufactured in India, but we’ll update you in due time.
