Indonesia blocked iPhone 16 sales because Apple had little investment in the country

A ban on the import of Apple products at the level of entire states remains a very rare phenomenon, but the Indonesian authorities, according to Bloomberg, blocked the sale of smartphones of the iPhone 16 family in this country, citing Apple’s failure to fulfill its obligations to invest in its economy.

Image Source: Apple

Following the example of India, the Indonesian authorities are trying to increase the degree of localization of imported smartphones; for Apple products in this sense, a threshold of 40% of local information content was set, from which it is still far away. Moreover, having promised to invest about $108 million in the Indonesian economy, Apple spent no more than $95 million on the development of local application development, according to the source. The company operates four academies for software developers in Indonesia. In the future, assembly of Apple products may also be established here. At least Samsung and Xiaomi have already established local enterprises to comply with the requirements of the Indonesian authorities.

Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia with a GDP of $1 trillion. More than 350 million active mobile phones are registered on its territory, which significantly exceeds the population of 270 million people. Requirements for the localization of smartphones were presented back in 2017; they included not only the organization of local assembly, but also established the share of localized software; it is precisely by this criterion that Apple still does not comply with the requirements of the country’s authorities. Additional rules concerned the use of locally sourced minerals in the production of devices outside its borders.

Increased import restrictions on certain types of products have already caused shortages of laptops and car tires in the Indonesian market. On the other hand, in the development of lithium battery production, the ban on nickel exports has demonstrated a positive effect. According to the country’s authorities, about 9,000 Apple smartphones of the iPhone 16 family were imported into its territory, but privately through airline employees or through postal services. These devices are for personal use and may not be resold.