On March 10, Apple announced that the iPhone 12 will be manufactured in India, a move which is said to be beneficial to the government as well as the technology giant.
“We are proud to be starting production of iPhone 12 in India for our local customers,” the company said in a statement, as quoted by Mint.
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Only the base model of the iPhone 12 will be manufactured, and the Pro models will be imported from China, the report said. Apple already manufactures the iPhone SE (2020), the iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 in India, through its contract manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron.
Under the Indian government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Apple has partnered with Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron.
Apple has been shifting some areas of production from China to other markets as it navigates the trade war between Washington and Beijing. A person familiar with the matter said in November Foxconn is moving some iPad and MacBook assembly to Vietnam from China at its request.
According to the publication, analysts believe that shifting some of the production to India is not only in the interest of Apple, but also the Indian economy, which has been trying to ramp up exports. While Apple has performed well in India over the past year, India still accounts for a tiny part of its manufacturing base, which means that it could significantly contribute to electronics exports.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is bullish about the company’s prospects in the Indian market, Indian Express reported.
“This is particularly the case in some of the emerging markets where we’re proud of how we’ve done…If you take India for example, we doubled our business last quarter compared to a year ago but our absolute level of business there is still quite low relative to the size of the opportunity,” Cook told analysts during a post-earnings call.
