View of an Apple logo
Credit: Reuters Photo
Bengaluru: Apple Inc is firm on its investment commitment to India, and is still going ahead with shifting a bulk of the production for iPhones meant for the United States market from China to India, DH has learnt.
“There is no change to the company’s plans for India. While a bulk of iPhones will continue to be manufactured in China, those meant for the US will be made in India,” said a source aware of discussions between the Cupertino, California-based global tech giant and the Indian government.
Apple has no smartphone production in the US - most of its iPhones are made in China while facilities in India produce around 40 million units per year, about 15 per cent of Apple's annual output. “Manufacturing in US is prohibitively expensive, and that is not changing any time soon,” the person said.
Soon after Trump’s comments, centrak government officials spoke to Apple executives, who assured that the company’s investment plans for India are intact and it proposes to make the country a major manufacturing base for its products.
India-made iPhones are assembled in Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn's factory in Tamil Nadu. Tata Electronics, which runs Pegatron Corp's operations in Karnataka, is the other key manufacturer. Tata and Foxconn are building new plants and adding production capacity to raise iPhone production.