Apple's newest phone iPhone 14 will be made in India as the global tech titan bets big on the manufacturing prowess of the world's second-biggest smartphone market after China. Cupertino, California-headquartered Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with iPhone SE. Today, Apple manufactures some of its most advanced iPhones in the country including the iPhone SE, iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and, now, iPhone 14.

According to PTI sources, the Made-in-India iPhone 14 will begin to reach local customers in the next few days. Phones manufactured in India will be both for the Indian market and exports.

The iPhone 14 will be shipped from Foxconn's Sriperumbudur facility on the outskirts of Chennai. Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and major iPhone assembler.

Apple, which long made most of its iPhones in China, is seeking alternatives as Xi Jinping’s administration clashes with the US government and imposes lockdowns across the country that have disrupted economic activity. At the same time, Narendra Modi’s administration is keen to make the country into a viable competitor to China in technology and production capability,

especially as Western investors and corporations begin to sour

on Beijing’s track record.

“India is now an attractive location for manufacturing as it offers better labour cost structure while Apple is looking to reduce geopolitical risks,” said Jeff Pu, an analyst with Haitong International Securities. “To turn India into a major

manufacturing site, Apple will help India accelerate its production timeline.”

“We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said in an emailed statement Monday without discussing production timelines. A Foxconn representative declined to comment.

Apple partners such as Foxconn, which makes the majority of the world’s iPhones, typically begin assembling the device in India about six to nine months after Chinese factories. That’s partly because more time is needed to secure and ship critical components to a supply chain less accustomed to the process.

Assembling iPhones often entails coordination between hundreds of suppliers and meeting Apple’s infamously tight deadlines and quality controls. Still, analysts such as Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities Group have said they anticipate Apple will eventually ship new iPhones from both countries at roughly the same time, a milestone in Apple’s efforts to diversify its supply chain and build redundancy.

Matching China’s pace of iPhone production would also mark a major achievement for India, which has been touting its attractiveness as an alternative at a time when rolling Covid lockdowns and US sanctions jeopardize the larger country’s position as a factory to the world. Industry executives are exploring a so-called China-plus-one strategy of migrating some production to countries such as India or Vietnam.

Apple’s partners began making iPhones in India in 2017, the start of a yearslong effort to build manufacturing capabilities in the country. Besides offering backup to existing operations, the country of 1.4 billion is a promising consumer market and the Modi administration has offered financial incentives under its Make in India program.

“All major companies are now looking at India as part of their ‘China-plus one’ or ‘China-plus two’ strategy,” said Aruna Sundararajan, who served as a secretary to the federal government in 2017 when Apple first began assembling iPhones in India. “For the long run, we need to strengthen our logistics and infrastructure, boost the human capital and focus more on

building an export hub to make India a viable alternative to China.”

While people within Apple and Foxconn anticipated a simultaneous production in India this year, Bloomberg suggests that it was never the plan. One of the key challenges the company faces in Indian production is secrecy. Bloomberg said, “Apple goes to extreme lengths to keep new product details confidential, and imposing the same rigorous controls in a second country would prove difficult.”

Apple Inc unveiled its latest iPhone series — the iPhone 14 models — with an improved camera, robust sensors and satellite messaging feature to send SOS texts in emergencies during its “Far Out” event on September 7. The new lineup has four models: iPhone 14, Plus, Pro and ProMax.

(With inputs from PTI and Bloomberg)

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First Published:Sept 26, 2022 11:14 AM IST