Apple to start India manufacturing in coming months with iPhone SE: Report

Apple Inc will in the coming months start assembling its lower-priced iPhone SE models at a contract manufacturer's plant in the technology hub of Bengaluru, an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

Apple's Taiwanese manufacturing partner Wistron Corp is setting up a plant in Bengaluru to focus solely on assembling iPhones, a separate source told Reuters earlier this month.

Apple's move comes as it seeks to boost its share in the world's fastest growing major mobile market, where handsets far cheaper than Apple's iPhones dominate. It also comes as smartphone sales growth is slowing in Asia's other massive market, China.


To lower prices, Apple has been seeking to set up local production and has been in talks with the Indian federal government regarding issues such as tax concessions.

The industry source told Reuters the initial manufacturing of the iPhone SE model was not contingent on those concessions.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Economic Times newspaper earlier on Friday reported Apple planned to initially assemble 300,000 to 400,000 iPhone SE handsets in India. The industry source told Reuters the numbers would be substantially lower to begin with.(Read More)

GST could throw spanner in Apple's Make in India plans: Report

Apple Inc for manufacturing its flagship devices in the country, reported The Economic Times on Monday.

The financial daily quoted Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia as saying that giving individual exemptions under the GST regime was not possible. So, Adhia explained, all countervailing duty (CVD) exemptions would go.

As reported earlier, the Cupertino, US-headquartered company continues to engage in talks with the central government over full-scale manufacturing of its flagship devices in the country. For this, Apple is seeking a 15-year CVD exemption from the government to make India a hub for exporting the devices rather than just producing devices for the local market, according to officials at the commerce ministry. Apple is facing a challenge of rising input costs in China, apart from the Chinese government increasingly cracking down on foreign companies.(Read More)