If you are an iPhone user, chances are high the device in your hands was assembled at a factory in China. While China-made iPhones continue to fulfill the massive demand for these devices every year, Apple has been looking at other countries as potential manufacturing hubs to reduce its dependence on China. One of these countries happens to be India, and according to a new report, Apple is likely to begin production of the iPhone 13 in India in the next few months.
According to the Economic Times, Apple has started trial production of the iPhone 13 at a Foxconn-owned plant in southern India. Once the dry run is over, the company expects the facility to churn out iPhone 13s on a regular basis starting in February 2022. The India-made iPhone 13 devices are expected to improve the availability of the model in other markets, and it is estimated that nearly 30% of those manufactured in India will be earmarked for export. Currently, there are no plans to make the iPhone 13 Pro and the Pro Max models in India.
Apple has been making iPhones in India for quite some time now. The country is already home to two iPhone manufacturing facilities — one owned by Taiwanese company Wistron and another plant owned by Foxconn. These facilities, however, mainly cater to India’s domestic iPhone needs — which typically happen to be older, less expensive models from Apple’s portfolio. In fact, Apple’s India plants make more iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models because these models continue to sell better than the iPhone 13 in that country.
Nevertheless, the move to manufacturing a more expensive iPhone 13 model this early in its life is a significant deviation from Apple’s India strategy so far. With Foxconn and Wistron planning to invest more in India, we may see more expensive models being assembled in the country going forward.