Apple considers India a major market for its premium products, and the Cupertino giant wants to take full care of it. The same has been reaffirmed with the reports of Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker for Apple, setting up a production facility in Peenya, Bangalore for manufacturing iPhones.
As reported by TOI (Times of India), Apple is “very serious” about expanding its roots in India. First, the company plans to assemble the iPhones, and thereafter manufacture them all together here. Multiple sources within the company cited Bangalore as the potential hub for Apple plans.
Meanwhile, Foxconn, another Chinese OEM, and Apple’s biggest contracted manufacturer had been scouting for land in Maharashtra to set up a production facility. However, Foxconn is not looking to tie up only with Apple and has reportedly tied up with OnePlus and Xiaomi for manufacture in India.
Apple has been slowly but surely eyeing big with the Indian market. In fact, this will be company’s second big announcement after the may announcement of a design and development accelerator in the city to grow the iOS developer community.
All this seems quite reasonable since the company has enjoyed 50% YOY growth in the Indian market. According to Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Apple sold 2.5 million iPhones from October 2015 to September 2016. The company clocked INR 9,997 crore in the 2016 financial year, that’s 56% better than the last year.
Manufacturing phones in India can help lowering the costs with “Make in India” incentives. This is an important factor as Apple products at sold at a premium. And this move will help the company to lower the price of iPhone in India, compared to other parts of the world.
Apple has also posted job openings on its portal for a few positions at its OEM’s factory in Bengaluru like operations program manager and product quality manager.