Yesterday it was bad news for Foxconn. Today it is good news.
The Apple assembler in India is said to have begun trial production of the iPhone 13. If everything goes well, Foxconn's manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur (near India's southern port city of Chennai) will start churning out Apple's newest baby in the market for mainstream consumption by February 2022.
A report in The Economic Times quoting unnamed industry executives said the made in India iPhone 13 would be for both local and export markets. The report, however, was silent which of the iPhone 13 variants would be manufactured here in India.
For the record, the Foxconn plant already manufactures iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 while iPhone SE is rolled out from the Wistron plant in Bengaluru. The third apple assembler in India, Pegatron, is still to get going with its production work.
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Chips chip away China's manufacturing strength
But why is Apple returning to India? After all, it had moved much of its production (in the aftermath of the second wave of Covid-19) to Taiwanese contract manufacturers at Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province. Incidentally, it happens to house the world's largest iPhone factory.
There are no official answers to this. Both Apple and Foxconn have not responded to the latest developments. The market speculation is that the chip shortage that had hit Chinese units --- so much so that for the first time in a decade or so Apple had to halt its production --- is now a full-blown crisis.
With shipments still not on back on stream, Apple, which is a stickler for meeting both production and revenue targets, is willy-nilly forced to look back at India. And at this location, the company managed to ensure a requisite supply of semiconductor chips for iPhone production.
Apple iPhone 13 series also faced production issues in Vietnam which is another of the company's manufacturing bases.
Will iPhone 13 price come down in India?
The federal Indian government, it may be recalled, is also doing its best to help the smartphone manufacturers to tide over the chip crisis. It is also unveiling a huge booster plan for the chip industry.
Things will become clearer in the next two or three days when there is an official response from the company.
Meanwhile, the domestically manufactured iPhone 13 could also mean that the price of Apple's latest flagship may reduce in India. Apple normally earmarks locally produced phones to the respective market.
As per Counterpoint Research, the Indian market’s share of domestically manufactured iPhones increased 17% in 2018 to 76% in 2021. The iPhone exports from India increased to 5% from nil a couple of years ago.
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