Trump seeks US to make iPhones the India way

A new iPhone factory in an out-of-the-way corner of India looks like a spaceship from another planet.

- Alex Travelli & Hari Kumar

Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles most of the world's iPhones for Apple, has landed amid the boulders and millet fields of Devanahalli.

The sleek buildings rising on the 300-acre site, operational but still growing, are emerging evidence of an estimated $2.5-billion investment.

This is what President Trump wants Apple to do in the United States. What is happening in this part of India shows both why that sounds attractive and why it will probably not happen.

In India, Apple is doubling down on a bet it placed after the Covid-19 pandemic began and before Trump's re-election. Many countries, starting with the United States, were eager to reduce their reliance on factories in China. Apple, profoundly dependent on Chinese production, was quick to act.

Analysts at Counterpoint Research calculated that India had succeeded in satisfying 18% of the global demand for iPhones by early this year, two years after Foxconn started making iPhones in India. By the end of 2025, with the Devanahalli plant fully online, Foxconn is expected to be assembling between 25-30% of iPhones in India.