Apple looking at giant iPhone expansion in India at both retail & manufacturing

Mumbai, India

Apple is planning expansion in India in both its retail and production arms, reports on Monday claim, including 100 new franchise stores, and a tripling of iPhone manufacturing in the next two years.

Apple has, for some time, considered and planned the move of some of its supply chain out of China and into other countries. While it will be a slow move overall, the changes could have a big impact on India's manufacturing capability.

According to a senior industry executive speaking to Mint, Apple will aim to triple its iPhone production in India over the next two years, following a considerable expansion of facilities in the country.

"They're looking to scale up the volumes that they make from India it can rise by more than three times what they aim to make this year," the unnamed executive said.

There are already plans underway to increase manufacturing in India, with major assembly partner Foxconn making big moves on its own. In November, it was reported Foxconn is aiming to quadruple its workforce in India over a two-year period.

Foxconn is also ramping up its chip manufacturing business in the country with a $500 million investment in December. It is highly likely that part of the investment will go towards Apple-related purposes.

At the other end of the supply chain, Tata Group plans to increase the number of franchise-operated Apple Stores in India, reports the Times of India. The tie-up will be via Indiniti Retail, owner of the Croma store chain, for the project.

Plans involve Infiniti Retail becoming an Apple franchisee partner and opening 100 stores at malls and high-street locations, people familiar with the work say. The stores will be Apple Authorized Resellers at between 500 and 600 square foot apiece, smaller than the Apple Premium Reseller stores at over 1,000 square foot.

The smaller stores will sell the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, but there will still be some larger stores in the mix that will offer the entire Apple catalog.

It is currently believed that India has around 160 Apple Premium Reseller stores in total.

The expansion news arrives at a time Apple is expected to open its first non-affiliate storefront in India. After delays, Apple is anticipated to open the Mumbai flagship store in the first quarter of 2023.

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5 Comments

bala1234

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

Many may approve the migration to Indian suppliers for Apple products. I see it as just moving from a country that represents challenges to American security, to another country which at some point in the future will represent the same challenges.

In this unending search for the cheapest foreign labor, all global corporations are merely putting off the day of reckoning. Does anyone remember the 1980's, when Japan was in the position America faces now? They couldn't afford their own labor, so they outsourced first to South Korea, and by doing so, raised the standard of living there to the point Japan could no longer afford Korean labor. China was the obvious next stop, of course. For a good indicator of how well this policy will work for us, take a look at Japan's economy. Mired in a decades long recession, aging and declining population, unaffordable housing (multigenerational mortgages are commonplace).

How long before China and India's middle class get tired of making things they can't afford, and demand better wages and living conditions? Well, I suppose Africa is next. Rinse and repeat. Until we realize that subsidizing our lifestyles with cheap foreign labor is unsustainable long term, and reinvigorate our own manufacturing infrastructure, we'll continue lurching from one impoverished supplier to another, and encountering the same supply chain interruptions we see today. Sure, we'd have to start living within our means. which means we may no longer spend as much on goods and services we can live without, and living with what we can afford from high quality goods and services provided by living wage workers located in our own country.

Even if everything you said is true. Isn't improving standard of living in "impoverished" nations to the point that they've become targets for marketing luxury products like iPhone still worth the trouble? Like you said they are bound to run out off places for cheap labor eventually...

waveparticle

said about 1 year ago

What is PRESENT production? 2%? LOL

muthuk_vanalingam

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

bala1234 said:

JP234 said:

Many may approve the migration to Indian suppliers for Apple products. I see it as just moving from a country that represents challenges to American security, to another country which at some point in the future will represent the same challenges.

In this unending search for the cheapest foreign labor, all global corporations are merely putting off the day of reckoning. Does anyone remember the 1980's, when Japan was in the position America faces now? They couldn't afford their own labor, so they outsourced first to South Korea, and by doing so, raised the standard of living there to the point Japan could no longer afford Korean labor. China was the obvious next stop, of course. For a good indicator of how well this policy will work for us, take a look at Japan's economy. Mired in a decades long recession, aging and declining population, unaffordable housing (multigenerational mortgages are commonplace).

How long before China and India's middle class get tired of making things they can't afford, and demand better wages and living conditions? Well, I suppose Africa is next. Rinse and repeat. Until we realize that subsidizing our lifestyles with cheap foreign labor is unsustainable long term, and reinvigorate our own manufacturing infrastructure, we'll continue lurching from one impoverished supplier to another, and encountering the same supply chain interruptions we see today. Sure, we'd have to start living within our means. which means we may no longer spend as much on goods and services we can live without, and living with what we can afford from high quality goods and services provided by living wage workers located in our own country.

Even if everything you said is true. Isn't improving standard of living in "impoverished" nations to the point that they've become targets for marketing luxury products like iPhone still worth the trouble? Like you said they are bound to run out off places for cheap labor eventually...

Worth the trouble for whom?

For Apple, to increase their business in the long term. At least, that is what @bala1234 seems to be implying to me.

lkrupp

said about 1 year ago

JP234 said:

. Sure, we'd have to start living within our means. which means we may no longer spend as much on goods and services we can live without, and living with what we can afford from high quality goods and services provided by living wage workers located in our own country.

At which time economies would completely collapse in an apocalypse of inflation and depression. If an economy doesn’t continually grow it collapses. Rainbows and Unicorns theories of economics are fantasies that don't work in the real world... and never have because... human nature. Remember, Star Trek was fiction.

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