According to Bloomberg News, Apple Inc. aims to begin producing the iPhone 14 in India as the U.S. tech giant looks for alternatives to China after the Xi administration's disagreements with Washington and nationwide lockdowns delayed production.
The article added on Tuesday (Aug. 23), citing sources familiar with the situation, that the company has been collaborating with suppliers to increase production in India and reduce the time it takes to produce new iPhones from the customary six to nine months in the past launches.
Bloomberg said that Foxconn, an Apple supplier based in Taiwan, has researched the logistics involved in receiving goods from China and assembling the iPhone 14 at its facility outside of Chennai, a city in southern India. The report also stated that the first iPhone 14s to be produced in India is anticipated to be finished in late October or early November.
The business is intending to build iPad tablets in India in addition to moving some aspects of iPhone production from China to other markets, notably India, which is the second-largest smartphone market in the world.
Contract manufacturers who supply American brands are increasingly relying on Mexico, Vietnam, and other nations besides China as they try to diversify their production away from China. The tech giant's suppliers are reportedly in talks to make the Apple Watch and MacBook for the first time in Vietnam, according to Nikkei last week.
According to reports, the Apple Watch and MacBook are now being produced in test quantities in Northern Vietnam by Apple's Chinese suppliers Luxshare Precision Industry and iPhone assembler Foxconn.
Apple is yet to comment on the matter.
After reporting profits that exceeded expectations last week, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn cautioned about the upcoming quarter, citing decreasing smartphone demand following a pandemic-fueled surge.
Like other major manufacturers, Foxconn, formerly known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has experienced a significant chip shortage that has hampered output as pandemic bottlenecks persisted and the Ukraine war put additional strain on logistics networks.
In April of this year, it was also reported that Apple Inc. had begun producing the iPhone 13 in India in an effort to lessen its reliance on its Chinese supply chain. According to a source, the phone is being made at a local Foxconn facility in the town of Sriperumbudur in the southern Tamil Nadu state, which serves as Apple's contract manufacturer in Taiwan.
The iPhone 13 is the company's fourth model to be produced locally since it began producing the iPhone SE in India in 2017.
