Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says Apple has plans to ship iPhone 15 models from India at launch. This would be a first for an iPhone launch, and it signals the company is continuing to work to diversify its supply chain away from China.
Indian suppliers are reportedly manufacturing casings for the iPhone 15. Local supplier Jabil is one of the suppliers doing this. The company already assembles AirPods enclosures and is expected to expand to manufacturing the Apple Pencil in the near future. The iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max continue to be made exclusively in China.
Everything hasn’t run smoothly in Apple’s transition away from China. This has led to Indian manufacturers being limited to producing components for certain iPhone models and colors. Earlier this year, it was reported that only one in two iPhone casings manufactured by Tata “is in good enough shape” to be sent to assembly at Foxconn.
This would be the first year that initial batches of an iPhone model were manufactured in India. Traditionally we see new iPhones being made exclusively in China, with India coming online in later months.