Time, geography in focus for iPhone production shift

There are reports that Apple intends to shift manufacturing of all US-bound iPhones, from China to India.

- Vishal Mathur

NEW DELHI:

That means around 60 million more iPhones may be made in India, destined specifically for the US—this, in addition to iPhones already made here for domestic consumption, and exports.

If Apple's manufacturing partners in India are able to pull this off, it'll be nothing short of a coup, say analysts.

There are three distinct yet overlapping pieces that need to come together.

The current iPhone manufacturing capacity in India with headroom for increasing local consumption and exports; investments lined-up by Apple and its partners Foxconn as well as Tata Electronics to add more production capacity; and sourcing of raw materials for which any production facility still largely relies on China.

Apple has not confirmed, or denied, these conversations.

A larger share of the pie India's manufacturing share of iPhones, depending on estimates, ranged between 10% to 20% at the end of 2024.

Apple's global iPhone shipments for the year were 232.1 million.

Apple does not release country-specific manufacturing data.

"Our estimations are that in 2024, the production levels of iPhones in India was around 43 million units.

They export around 32 million out of this, and the rest are sold in India," points out Navkendar Singh, analyst with International Data Corporation (IDC) Asia Pacific.

While India has been assembling iPhones in India since 2017, and annually increasing that capacity, it was last year when the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max marked a beginning of the 'Pro' iPhone manufacturing in the country.

That played its part in bucking the trend of generational inflation that is common with annual smartphone upgrade cycles—the fact that iPhone 16 Pro phones cost lesser than their predecessors, forced Android phone makers including Samsung and OnePlus to implement pricing corrections on their flagship phones.