Apple To Manufacture IPhone 14 Models In India From Launch: Analyst

Over the past two years, Apple has consistently increased the capacity of its manufacturing plant in India. According to an previous report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering exiting China and expanding its manufacturing capacity in other countries such as Vietnam and India. However, the company sees India as the closest alternative to China. Recently, the TF International Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has also corroborated the information.   

The iPhone 14 will be manufactured in India

According to Kuo, the upcoming iPhone 14 will be manufactured simultaneously in India and China from launch day. With the previous models, India has been behind in manufacturing the iPhone by a couple of months. Kuo says, "Indian iPhone capabilities/shipments still have a big gap with China, but it is an important milestone for Apple in building an iPhone production site outside of China."

Although Kuo did not mention it, the iPhone 14 could be made at the Foxconn factory near Chennai. In the past, the factory made models like the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. Manufacturing iPhones in India gives Apple the opportunity to offer discounts through third-party retailers. Last year during the festive season, iPhone 11 (128GB) became available at a price below Rs. 40,000 and iPhone 12 (128 GB) for less than Rs. 55,000 in India.

In the future, if Apple finds favorable situations, it may increase the capacity of its manufacturing plants in India or even establish new ones. Up until now, the company has got millions of iPhones made in China, which are then sold around the world. However, with Apple increasing confidence in its Indian manufacturing plant, seeing more iPhone assembly lines in India may not be far off.

In 2022, Apple's focus appears to be shifting to "Pro" models of the iPhone. According to a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo, the latest A16 Bionic chipset will be exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Based on that, the vanilla iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max could pack last year's A15 Bionic chipset, providing similar performance to the iPhone 13 series. So far, both the regular and Pro versions of the iPhone have been shipped with the latest chipset.

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