iPhone 14 manufacturing begins in India just as Delhi starts promoting the semiconductor industry
As analysts anticipate a greater shift in the American giant’s future manufacturing, Apple announced on Monday that it has begun assembling the iPhone 14 models in India. This marks the first time the current line-up has been locally produced in the same calendar year in the second-largest smartphone market in the world. The iPhone 14 was launched just earlier this month.
The smartphone is being produced in the Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai by the company’s international partner Foxconn. Later this year, the locally made iPhone models will start selling in the nation. Apple started assembling iPhones locally in India in 2017, but up until this year, the iPhone manufacturer had only used the country’s manufacturing facilities to assemble handsets from earlier generations.
“The new iPhone 14 line-up introduces ground-breaking new technologies and important safety capabilities. We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said in a statement.
Apple could make one out of four iPhones in India by 2025, JP Morgan analysts said in a note last week. About 5% of iPhone 14 production is expected to move to the world’s second-biggest smartphone market by late 2022.
In December, India approved a $10 billion incentive programme for the semiconductor sector. Meanwhile, a $19.5 billion chip manufacturing plant is being built in India by a partnership between Indian mining corporation Vedanta and Foxconn, the Taiwanese business that assembles Apple’s iPhones. These facilities would be among the country’s first to manufacture semiconductors.
Without a doubt, New Delhi wants to woo multinational corporations like TSMC and Intel to India. The inexpensive and educated labour population may be able to assist India in the chip design sector of the semiconductor supply chain, which has a high demand for skilled labourers.
