Technology giant Apple has confirmed that it’s moving a part of its production for the iPhone 12 to India. “Apple is dedicated to making the best products and services in the world to delight our customers. iPhone 12 features a sleek flat-edge design and brings impressive new capabilities, including advanced computational photography, an expansive edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR display with OLED for a brighter, more immersive viewing experience, a new Ceramic Shield front cover, providing the biggest jump in durability ever on iPhone, and is powered by A14 Bionic, the fastest chip in a smartphone. We are proud to be starting production of iPhone 12 in India for our local customers,” the company said in its statement.
Apple to make its existing flagship phone locally in India
According to a report by the Economic Times, the company won’t be moving production of the iPhone 12 Pro series to the country just yet, and is only making the iPhone 12 in India. The move marks the first time that Apple is going to make one of its existing flagship-class phones to India. The iPhone 12 and the accompanying Pro series are the first 5G devices from Apple. The ET report also said that the iPhone 12 will be manufactured by Foxconn, which has a plant in Sri City, in Andhra Pradesh.
With the iPhone 12, Apple will now be making the iPhone SE (2020), iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 in India. The company currently produces phones here through partners Foxconn and Wistron, while a third contract manufacturer — Pegatron — is in the process of setting up its first factory in the country. Earlier reports also indicated that Apple would be making some of its iPad tablets in the country, though the company hasn’t confirmed the same just yet.
While Apple still accounts for a very small part of smartphone sales in India, the company had doubled its market share here last year. According to fourth quarter data from various market research firms, Apple’s market share doubled to 4% in December 2020, as compared to 2% in December 2019. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had also said that the company “roughly doubled” its market share in India in 2020, during an earnings call in January.
