Apple said on Wednesday that it is going to start production of iPhone 12 smartphones in India. “We are proud to be starting production of iPhone 12 in India for our local customers,” the company said.
The tech giant, which started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, has been shifting some of its production from China to India. At the moment, the company manufactures the iPhone SE (2020), the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 in India, through its contract manufacturing partners, Foxconn and Wistron.
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The company is only going to make the iPhone 12 models here at the moment, while the Pro models will be imported from China.
According to experts, shifting some of the production to India is not only in the interest of Apple, but also the Indian economy, which has been trying to ramp up exports. While Apple has performed well in India over the past year, India still accounts for a tiny part of its manufacturing base, which means that it could significantly contribute to electronics exports.
The Cupertino, California-based company almost doubled its market share in India over 2020. “There are certain markets where our share is quite low. India is one of them. It did improve from the year-ago quarter. Our business roughly doubled. So, we feel pretty good about the trajectory,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in an earnings call in January.
Analysts peg Apple’s market share in India at about 4% of the overall market for the December quarter of FY2020. The company’s market share was at around 2% in December FY2019.
Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, told Mint in January that over 50% of Apple’s sales in India in the December quarter was driven by older iPhones.
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