It is now official that Apple will begin assembling phones in India very soon and that will be done in a facility near Bengaluru. The news was out back in December 2016 but none of the officials confirmed it back then, and now the government has welcomed the company to start the production and it won’t take long before we see phones with the “Made in India” tag.
The release, signed by state IT minister Priyank Kharge, said Apple’s intentions to manufacture in Bengaluru “will foster cutting edge technology ecosystem and supply chain development in the state, which are critical for India to compete globally.” Though it did not provide a timeline, production is expected to begin in June.
While the discussions were on, it was said that the ministers and officials of Karnataka state had held talks with several Apple executives and people linked to it, including Priya Balasubramaniam, VP – iPhone operations, Dheeraj Chugh, director – iPhone operations, and Ali Khanafer, senior manager – government affairs (India and Middle East).
Bengaluru’s industrial hub is located in Peenya, and that is where Taiwanese company Wistron (OEM for Apple) will be assembling the Apple iPhones. Karnataka stood ahead in the race to have the Apple facility with states like Gujarat, Telangana, and Maharashtra as well competing for it.
“We’ve been working hard to develop our operations in India and are proud to deliver the best products and services in the world to our customers here. We appreciate the constructive and open dialogue we’ve had with government about further expanding our local operations,” Apple said.
Whether the assembly of iPhones in India will reduce the phone’s cost or not, we cannot already speculate that because the introduction of GST in India could spark off a rise in the cost of smartphones and the ultimate price might see no big difference. We will wait for further information from Apple regarding the same.
Source: AppleInsider
Does that mean now there won’t be much difference in price from iPhones in US? I hope so!