A fresh report has suggested that Apple might be looking to strengthen its base in India, especially with its manufacturing side. Apparently, several meetings have taken place with top executives from the Cupertino based giant and the local government officials, which have discussed the possibility of shifting production capacity from China to India.
Recently, Apple has been concentrating efforts on offloading production sites from China to other regions like Vietnam and India. The new report reveals that the company is now looking into shifting a fifth of the production capacity from China to India. This will scale up its local manufacturing revenues and could have Apple shell out nearly 5 billion US Dollars over the course of the next 5 years, through its known contract manufacturers (Wistron and Foxconn).
The implications of this sizeable shift in the manufacturing line are huge, with India soon becoming an exported of the iPhone series and, by its extension, India’s largest exporter as well. According to a government official, “We expect Apple to $40 billion worth of smartphones, mostly for exports through its contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn, availing the benefits under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.”
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Unfortunately, Apple has yet to give out any official statements regarding this big move. Although, sources close to the tech giant’s plans have claimed that there were some issues in the government’s “ambitious” PLI scheme. These are basically incentives provided by the government to attract local based smartphone production by foreign brands, which directly boosts exports.
Apple has shown interest in expanding in the Southeast Asian region, especially in India in recent years. While the company sells 1.5 billion US Dollars worth of smartphone in India, only a third is actually from locally made manufacturing plants. The move to grow and diversify its lineup and handset capacity could see lowered pricing in the near future and a jump in sales in the country, where Apple has historically faced issues in.
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