Not so long ago, every seventh iPhone was manufactured in India, which in itself was an achievement for Apple’s relatively “young” production site, but according to the results of the last fiscal year, as Bloomberg notes, every fifth smartphone of this brand sold worldwide was of Indian origin.
Image Source: Apple
In total, Apple smartphones worth $22 billion were manufactured in India in the fiscal year that ended last month, up nearly 60% from the year before. The figures are based on the selling price of the products from specific companies, not the retail price of the iPhone. As noted earlier, the equivalent of about $17 billion of that amount was sent outside India.
The bulk of iPhones in the country are manufactured by Foxconn in the south. The Indian conglomerate Tata Group owns two iPhone manufacturing plants, bought from Wistron and Pegatron. Such expansion rates of iPhone production came in handy during the alarming period after the US authorities announced an increase in import duties on products from China. As is known, since the end of March, Apple has managed to send six full airliners with smartphones to the US with a total weight of about 600 tons. However, the day before, Donald Trump exempted electronic devices from increased customs duties, thereby easing the problem.
Migrating production for complex electronic devices takes years. In 2022, Bloomberg analysts determined that it would take at least eight years to move just 10% of Apple’s production outside of China. The entire current iPhone lineup, including the most expensive versions, is now assembled in India. Apple’s smartphones account for about 8% of the domestic Indian market, and the company’s annual turnover in the country has approached $8 billion.