Apple offers Indonesia token investment to lift iPhone ban

Following Indonesia's ban of the iPhone 16 because Apple has not invested enough in the country, the company has reportedly offered $10 million.

The threatened ban on the iPhone in Indonesia became real in late October 2024. The ban centers on Indonesia's drive to get firms to invest more in manufacturing in the country, and Apple had so far failed to reach the level it had promised.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has proposed investing almost $10 million toward its local suppliers and a factory near Jakarta. The factory makes accessories and components for Apple devices, according to unspecified sources.

Apple is said to have submitted this proposal to the Ministry of Industry, which is considering it. A decision is reportedly expected soon, but neither the Ministry nor Apple have commented.

The $10 million sum proposed, though, would not be sufficient to reach Apple's commitments. The company previously committed to investing $109.6 million in the country, and so far has instead invested $94.53 million.

Apple, like all foreign companies operating in Indonesia, requires a Domestic Content Level certificate. Apple had such a certificate, which requires 40% of components or services to be local, but let it expire.

The $10 million investment in suppliers would be a change for Apple, whose previous investment in Indonesia has been in what the country calls innovation development. This creation of Apple Academies still counts toward the Domestic Content Level.

A fourth Apple Developer Academy opened in Indonesia in April 2024.

"We're excited by the growing developer community in Indonesia," said Tim Cook at the time, "and we look forward to investing in the success of even more coders with our fourth academy in the country."

4 Comments

danox 3393 comments · 11 Years

About 2 weeks ago

Apples current market share in Indonesia is 4%, In comparison to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei, Apple has a 38 percent average marketshare among the mainly southeast Asian countries and their share is growing, I believe Apple’s percentage eventually will be higher than 50% because most of those countries in the southeast Asia will are walking away from the Chinese phones like Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

If you look closely, Apple is actually doing very well and Southeast Asia among all the other Asian countries, particularly if we look at South Korea and Japan thrown into the mix, the so called financial experts on Wall Street can never figure that out and guess which new small computer Apple has just introduced that probably would do very well in that part of the world where living space is at a premium that new Mac mini is tailor-made and is also priced just right Apple will definitely get a second look among many people who have had exposure to the iPhone.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-market-share-by-country

Apples percentage in Indonesia is 4% Indonesia has no hand to play….

anonymouse 6967 comments · 15 Years

About 2 weeks ago

danox said:

... guess which new small computer Apple has just introduced that probably would do very well in that part of the world where living space is at a premium that new Mac mini is tailor-made and is also priced just right ...

I would think that, for a space at a premium situation, the iMac would be a better choice.

eddyz.jezz 1 comment · New User

About 2 weeks ago

Asking for a 50 year tax holiday? Dont expect the country to grant it. IN your dream Apple! The ban will be enforced until their requirements are fulfilled