Apple has decided to begin the commercial assembly of the iPhone 12 in India. The US-based tech conglomerate has been threatening to shift the production of its hardware out of China for a few years, and that day has finally come. Of course, this move was sped up thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, pushing Apple to look into other ways to put its phones together.
The iPhone’s new base
According to recent reports, Apple has contracted Foxconn in India to produce its base iPhone 12 smartphones. This sounds like a ‘test’ of sorts, as there’s no indication of the company moving production of its complete range of devices over to the neighbouring country yet.
The company joins a slew of other smartphone companies in manufacturing its devices through Foxconn, including Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus. This is because the Indian government has initiated an incentive programme called the PLI (Production-Linked Incentive) scheme. It’s been set up to allow additional incentives on incremental sales on products manufactured in the country, basically.
It looks like Apple is keen on bringing more production into India, with reports suggesting the iPad range may be next in line. Currently, the newer iPhone 12, 11, XR, and SE 2020 models are manufactured in the country.
Source: TechRadar