Apple started manufacturing its iPhone 11 in the country at the Foxconn plant near Chennai, which boosts the government’s Make in India initiative.
In the Wistron plant near Bengaluru, Apple also plans to manufacture iPhone SE units.
Production is currently limited but still a small number of locally manufactured iPhone 11 units has already been shipped to retail stores. Apple has plans to increase its production in India.
Production will be increased in stages, and two senior industry executives have said that Apple will intend to export the Indian-made iPhone 11, reducing its dependency on China.
The company has not lowered prices because it also sells iPhone 11 phones to India which are manufactured in China, but industry Executives believe that there may be a possibility later on. Apple saves 22% of imported duty taxes by manufacturing locally.
On Friday, Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law & Justice, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister of India) Tweeted that Apple had begun to manufacture iPhone 11 models in India.
2020 – iPhone 11
2019 – iPhone 7 & XR
2018 – iPhone 6S
2017 – iPhone SE
This chronology is a statement in itself as to how @narendramodi govt. has developed the mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem in India.
It’s only a humble beginning. https://t.co/T1ssI1yG6K— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) July 24, 2020
The iPhone 11 is India’s biggest seller of the three new Apple devices released in September. Locally assembled product supplies have already entered retail shops. Apple will manufacture two other handset models in the country, iPhone XR at the Foxconn plant and the iPhone 7 at the Wistron factory.