iPhone is a status symbol rather than just a smartphone. But it is a status symbol for a reason. Firstly, it is very expensive, secondly, it is very smooth and excellent in working. One reason why Apple prices its iPhones very expensive in India is that they have to pay around 20% import duties on the iPhones it ships into the country. Another reason which Tim Cook admitted to is that Apple puts a premium on Dollar against Indian Rupee for the Indian customers. This is so that Apple can invest more heavily on R&D and bring better products in the future. One thing that was missing until now was flagship iPhones being manufactured in India. But now Apple has changed that and has started manufacturing iPhone 11 in India.
iPhone 11 in India
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of India tweeted that Apple will manufacture iPhone 11 in India now. The assembling of parts for iPhone 11 has already started in a Foxconn plant-based in Chennai, India. Apple will look to increase the production rate with time so that it can ship the iPhone 11 to other international markets from India.
According to some reports, Apple is also looking to set up production for its new iPhone SE 2020 in Wistron plant situated in Bangalore, India. It is not the first time though that Apple is manufacturing iPhones in India. Back in October 2019, Apple started the production of iPhone XR and along with that has also manufactured iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 in India.
CEO of Apple, Tim Cook has mentioned in the past that it is one of Apple’s priorities to set-up production and manufacturing plants in India. Cook said, “I think India is a very important market in the long-term. It's a challenging market in the short-term. But we're learning a lot. We have started manufacturing there which is very important to be able to serve the market in a reasonable way. And we're growing that capability there.”
This move would slowly allow Apple to stop depending on China for production and exporting of iPhones. All the iPhone which will be made in India will come with ‘Assembled in India’ tag.
