Apple Inc. iPhones including iPhone SE, center front, are displayed at the company's Omotesando store. (Photo : Getty Images/Tomohiro Ohsumi)
Apple plans to produce 300,000 to 400,000 units of the iPhone SE in India with the help of Wistron starting April 2017. Operations will kick off at Karnataka, a new plant purposely built for the “made in India” initiative. From there, Apple can use this is to explore other opportunities and make their products available to the market.
With India’s growing smartphone market, the move is seen as a precedent to the Indian government impending verdict on Apple’s economic concessions, Economic Times reported. Tied up to the whole effort by Apple include possibly getting some tax breaks and lower duty rates as the company tries to bring in its manufacturing business to India.
Apple has been seeking for special government consideration for quite some time now with the iPhone SE tasked to break the ice. Despite known as one of the budget-friendly devices under the Cupertino company banner, it was made clear that the said device is not a contingent to make the collaboration possible, Apple Insider reported.
However, the Made in India objective is seen as part of a bigger plan by Apple. There are apparent bigger plans ahead as far as ramping up their smartphone business coverage in India. The plan to kick off production at the Karnataka plant may expand further with reports that Apple might build out to the Bengaluru plant for their other iPhone models.
Other than that, there is the unofficial word that Apple could be moving some of its workforces in China to India. With rising labor costs, the move is seen as a tactic to save on manufacturing overhead cost.
The Indian market looms as the winner if Apple does succeed in avoiding hefty import duties. This would result in reduced production costs leading to price drops en route to high demand with the iPhone SE seen as the perfect catalyst.
Come April, Apple stands to finally address the previous problem of relying on authorized resellers that prevented them from properly segregating the Indian market. Once production facilities are up, the Cupertino company can reach a bigger niche and offer their latest products to consumers at a more affordable price.
Check out the video below for more details on the iPhone SE manufacturing plans for India.
