Apple iPhone XR, a popular smartphone from the US-based tech giant which was launched last year, is now getting assembled in India. As per the reports, Apple has now started selling locally assembled iPhone XR in the Indian market.
The company’s iPhone XR boxes with an “Assembled in India” tag were seen on Monday in many of the country’s electronic product retailers, including Croma, with a price tag of ₹49,900 (roughly £542) for the 64GB version.
It seems like the company is looking to expand its market share in India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The company has been struggling in India mostly because of the pricing of iPhones and India is now a hub of value-for-money offerings from the Chinese brands.
If the reports are to be believed, then the Apple iPhone XR are being assembled at the contract manufacturer Foxconn’s India factory in Chennai. This is being done by Apple to avoid high levies on the import of fully-built devices as well as to meet local sourcing norms for opening its own retail stores in India.
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Reports indicate that the company is expected to save over 20 percent on import duties as it starts assembling devices in India. The development also comes at a time when the United States and China are involved in a trade war and thus Apple is now looking for alternatives to manufacturing phones in China.
Thus, companies like Apple are now looking to use India as an export hub to soften the impact of an ongoing trade war between the United States and China. Earlier this year, Reuters had reported that Apple would start assembling its top-end iPhones in India.
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