Apple's first "made in India" device will be the iPhone SE, with reports on Friday claiming the tech giant plans to start production of the entry-level handset in the coming months through contract manufacturer Wistron.
Citing sources familiar with Apple's plans, The Economic Times reports the company will in April begin manufacturing the lower priced iPhone at a plant in Bengaluru, targeting final output at 300,000 to 400,000 units. Apple is producing handsets within India's borders in a bid to capture a slice of the country's growing smartphone market.
Apple partner Wistron is expected to handle iPhone SE assembly at its new facility in Karnataka, a plant thought to be purpose built for the effort.
Production is set to begin before the Indian government returns a final verdict on Apple's proposed economic concessions, the report said. The company is angling for tax breaks and lower duty rates in return for bringing its manufacturing business to the country.
Though Apple has long fought for special government consideration in the region, initial iPhone SE production was apparently not contingent on the success of those talks, the report said.
"It is Apple's first such venture in India [...] The demands they have made are for the larger plans of the company to really scale up manufacturing in India," a senior government official said.
A separate report from Reuters seemingly confirms the sentiment, suggesting Apple has bigger plans for India in the long term.
The report goes on to cite its own sources as saying iPhone SE production will be "substantially lower" than the 300,000 to 400,000 unit estimates provided by The Economic Times, at least to start. Depending on the success of initial production runs, Apple might build out the Bengaluru plant to handle other iPhone models. Previous rumors intimate the company is thinking about moving part of its Chinese manufacturing force to India to save on rising labor costs.
With Indian manufacturing assets in place, Apple stands to avoid hefty import duties, thereby reducing the cost of its products within the country. The anticipated price drop could drive demand and increase Apple's exceedingly slim slice of the market.
In addition, the production facilities would help Apple meet local sourcing requirements for creating a retail and distribution network. As it stands, Apple is unable to operate brick-and-mortar Apple stores in the region, forcing the company to instead rely on authorized resellers.
17 Comments
Well done Apple. If that is the way to get a decent foothold in an othewise very restricted market then great.
More than anything, I see this as, to me, a very welcome confirmation of Apple's commitment to middle priced phones.
While Apple is obviously able to compete with anybody and everybody at the high end, they have been getting killed on the lower/medial end. While this has not come to a head because of the rapidly evolving smart phone technology, that evolution is starting to slow and smart phones, like PCs, are becoming commodities -- where price is more important than features because they all have the same basic, fundamental features. (They all can make calls, send text messages and email and interact with the web.)
Really! Does it matter if a phone has an 8Mb camera or a 12Mb? How much does force touch improve a phone? Yes, it's nice. But it's a nice to have, not a must have. Its a frill.
Instead of competing on hardware frills, I see the future of Apple resting on its infrastructure: The seamless, reliable, secure integration of all of its products -- products that "just work". NO other organization can compete with Apple on those terms. Every single one of them is condemned to fight a non-winnable battle of who has the latest and the greatest frill.
Look at differently. If Trump makes USA-China import tax trade conflict than India is back-up for lower cost iPhone manufacturing.Takes less time to expand manufacturing capacity than build it from scratch in a time crisis. so, start iphone SE manufacturing and than if China gives hard time than move to India all of iphone manufacturing. Plus China is no different than Russia who wants to replace USA in Global trade,military, not India.