Apple Inc plans to begin manufacturing the iPhone 14 in India about two months after the product’s initial release out of China, narrowing the gap between the two nations, but not closing it completely as some had anticipated.
The company has been working with suppliers to ramp up manufacturing in India and shorten the lag in production of the new iPhone from the typical six to nine months for previous launches, people familiar with the matter said.
Apple, which long made most of its iPhones in China, is seeking alternatives as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) administration clashes with the US government and imposes lockdowns across the nation that have disrupted economic activity.
Photo: Reuters
Analysts such as Kuo Ming-chi (郭明錤) of TF International Securities Group Co (天風國際證券) have said they anticipate Apple would ship the next iPhone from both nations at roughly the same time, which would have been a significant benchmark in Apple’s efforts to diversify its supply chain and build redundancy.
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), the primary manufacturer of iPhones known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, has studied the process of shipping components from China and assembling the iPhone 14 device at its plant outside the southern Indian city of Chennai, the people said.
That included looking at ways to maintain Apple’s high standards for confidentiality, they said.
Apple and Foxconn ultimately determined a simultaneous start in India and China is not realistic this year, although it remains a long-term goal, the people said.
The first iPhone 14s from India are likely to be finished in late October or November, following the initial release next month, they said.
An ambitious target would be the Diwali festival that begins on Oct. 24, one person said.
A spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment. Foxconn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Matching China’s pace of iPhone production would have marked a major milestone for India, which has been touting its attractiveness as an alternative at a time when rolling COVID-19 lockdowns and US sanctions jeopardize China’s position as factory to the world.
Assembling iPhones often entails coordination between hundreds of suppliers and meeting Apple’s infamously tight deadlines and quality controls. To ensure a smooth launch, Apple wanted to focus on getting the China operations up to speed first and then work out the India production, one of the people said.
Apple’s partners began making iPhones in India in 2017, the start of a years-long effort to build manufacturing capabilities in the nation.
Besides offering backup to its existing operations, the nation of 1.4 billion people is a promising consumer market and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has offered financial incentives for technology production under its Make in India program.
One challenge in narrowing the cap of India production is secrecy. Apple goes to extreme lengths to keep new product details confidential and imposing the same rigorous controls in a second nation would prove difficult.
Local executives in India examined entirely cornering off a section of one of Foxconn’s multiple assembly lines, sequestering workers and scrutinizing all possible ways in which the security around the device could be compromised, two of the people said.
Thus far, the drastic security controls and stringent seclusion of its China facilities would be challenging to replicate, one of the people said.
Apple has also been concerned about Indian customs officials, who typically open up packages to check whether imported materials match their declarations, another potential vulnerability for product secrecy.
Even if Apple and Foxconn intended a simultaneous launch, supply-chain challenges would have stymied the goal. China, the source of many iPhone components, has gone through successive waves of lockdowns, complicating the process of shipping components through the nation.
India’s workforce and factories have not easily adopted the highly controlled practices that Apple requires from suppliers. Since Apple began assembling iPhones in India through contract manufacturers Foxconn and Wistron Corp (緯創) five years ago, workers have revolted over salaries and the quality of food in two prominent incidents.
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