After some unexpected delays, Apple's iPhone 13, which went on trial production at the Foxconn's Sriperumbudur unit near Chennai in December last, is now expected to go into regular production from April.
Foxconn has invested an additional $350 million in the plant to help build an exclusive production line for Apple iPhone 13.
According to a news report in Business Standard, the iPhone 13 phones manufactured at the plant are meant both for Indian and export markets.
It is not clear yet as to which of the iPhone 13 variants would be manufactured here in India.
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.
Apple was originally scheduled to start producing the iPhone 13 in India around January-February, but could not do so as the Foxconn Plant was put on probation.
Foxconn plant had to be shut from the middle of last December as a result of workers unrest over the quality of food served at their dormitories. Many of them had to be hospitalised and that resulted in the employees hitting the streets in protest and the company shuttering the plant. Apple auditors also put the company on probation. The plant reopened only on January 12 this year, and the orders for manufacturing iPhone 13 hence were delayed.
Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is Apple’s most important iPhone assembler, and has plants in many parts of the world, aside from India. Apple accounts for about 40% of the Taiwanese company’s total sales.
Foxconn, which 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, is making India its focus again for various strategic reasons, including chip shortage.
The 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.
Domestically manufactured iPhone 13 could also mean that the price of Apple's flagship may reduce in India. Apple normally earmarks locally produced phones to their respective markets. The phone is currently priced at Rs. 74,990 on Amazon.
