New data indicates that the value of exports of Indian-made iPhones will hit $3 billion in Apple’s current fiscal year. While that number will be double what it was in 2022, that number is minuscule when compared with the number of Chinese iPhone exports.
Apple has been working to ease its reliance on China as its manufacturing base, thanks to COVID-19 disruptions over the last few years. A recent COVID-related disruption at Foxconn’s main assembly plant is said to have cost Apple a billion dollars per week.
Originally, the first India-made iPhones were limited to a single model – the original iPhone SE – and were intended only for sale in India.
Since then, Apple has expanded its iPhone production in India. iPhone 14 assembly had been expected to begin simultaneously in both China and India. While the company didn’t quite pull off the simultaneous production, the iPhone 14 did begin assembly in India. This year’s iPhone 15 lineup is expected to begin simultaneous production later this year.
Bloomberg reports that exports of iPhones made in India doubled between April and December last year.
Apple exported more than $2.5 billion of iPhones from India from April to December, nearly twice the previous fiscal year’s total, underscoring how the US tech giant is accelerating a shift from China with geopolitical tensions on the rise.
Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron Corp. have each shipped more than $1 billion of Apple’s marquee devices abroad in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 2023, people familiar with the matter said. Pegatron Corp., another major contract manufacturer for Apple, is on track to move about $500 million of the gadgets overseas by the end of January, the people said, asking not to be identified revealing private information.
(Via 9to5Mac)