Apple has officially started manufacturing the new iPhone 14 in India, the company confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch. This marks the first time that Apple has started locally producing a new iPhone lineup in India in the same calendar year as its release.
“We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” an Apple spokesperson confirmed in a statement. The units are being manufactured by Foxconn in the Sriperumbudur facility near Chennai, TechCrunch reports. The first locally produced iPhone units will go on sale in India later this year.
Analysts expect Apple to begin the iPhone 14 manufacturing process in India at a slow rate. For the fourth quarter of this year, JP Morgan analysts cited by TechCrunch say that Apple and Foxconn hope to make around 1 million iPhone units per month in the country, roughly 5% of total iPhone volume.
Again, one of the more notable things about this announcement is the short time gap between the first launch of the iPhone 14 in September and the start of production in India:
“India’s iPhone supply chain has historically supplied only legacy models. Interestingly, Apple has requested that EMS vendors manufacture iPhone 14/14 Plus models in India in 4Q22, within two to three months of the start of production in Mainland China. The much shorter interval implies the increasing importance of India production and likely higher iPhone allocations to India manufacturing in the future,” the report added.
As of right now, Apple is only producing the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models in India. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are still being exclusively manufactured in China.
A report earlier this month indicated that Apple is aiming to manufacture 25% of iPhone units in India by 2025, yet another signal of its efforts to reduce reliance on China.
Author: Chance Miller
Source: 9TO5Google
