Next Apple iPhones to be ‘Made in India’ with Manufacturing Plant Confirmed

Last year, Foxconn sent their officers to Indian State Maharashtra for scouting the prospects to set up a manufacturing unit in the country where the company would be making iPhone. While the Chinese manufacturer had set up plants in other states in partnership with brands like Gionee, Asus, and Smartron over the past months. We now finally have the confirmation that Foxconn is setting up a plant in Maharashtra. The report coming in from ET Now says that company has found 2-3 locations covering about 1200 acres of land.

The deal is closed to being signed, which will result in a setup of the first manufacturing facility where iPhones will be made. It is reported that the production will start sometime in late 2017 or early 2018 as the setting up manufacturing units would require up to 18 months. Note that the total cost of this project is stated to be $10 Billion, which says a lot that Apple is looking forward to woo future iPhone user in the country as their sales have already started to see a great growth.

Earlier – Apple’s iPhone could be made in India, in the near future, if the talks are to be believed. Foxconn Technology is in talks to set up a manufacturing plant of Apple iPhone in India, the third largest market for smartphones in the world. Apple is no where close to the top when it comes to sales in India, but that is possibly because of the high prices of the devices in the country.

Foxconn has been recently facing some heat in China, where it manufactures majority of iPhones, but the wages have been increasing in the recent time, and India will be a perfect spot for the company to bring the unit closer to the consumer base here. “Made in India” tag could reduce the price, as well as attract more buyers than it is doing currently.

“Foxconn is sending a delegation of their officers to scout for locations in a month’s time,” said Subhash Desai, industries minister of India’s western state Maharashtra.

Although the details about the plans are scarce, Foxconn is aiming to have about 10-12 facilities in India, including factories and data centres, all to be done by 2020. The government also said that although Foxconn isn’t clear about any commitment, but could be making iPhones, iPads, and iPods and if possible, this won’t be limited to the local market, but will ship to global markets as well.

Foxconn isn’t something new to India, as the manufacturing unit was forced to shut down after Nokia was purchased by Microsoft, and ultimately the Nokia brand was rested. According to Sky Li, VP of Oppo, India is a booming market for smartphones, and it is right to plan and expand in India to a comparable level with the Chinese market, in the next half decade “The smartphone boom in India indicates the time is just right to focus on expansion plans and increasing volume in India to a comparable level with the China market in the next five years,”

India will still be a very tough market for Apple, where Samsung and Micromax are the leading brands, and the latter sells phone with similar specs for lesser than half the price of an Apple iPhone. But the brand value garnered by the Cupertino giant can help them pick up the pace in number of sales, if the pricing is altered in the future after manufacturing begins in India.

No details are clear about the timing as well, thus the next phone directly could be made in India, or it could take more than a couple of years for the manufacturing to begin.