India to have iPhone 12 assembling units from the first quarter as Apple plans to end China units

Last updated on February 6th, 2021 at 09:00 am

Apple is moving forward with ending its dependency on China and is increasing its production of Macs, iPhones, iPods, and other devices in India and Vietnam. Apple has shared its plans of increasing iPhone production in India “with plans to start producing the latest iPhone 12 series locally as early as this quarter”. 

India is already home to assembling units for Apple iPhone 11 and XR, the highest selling models in the country, and also iPhone SE, 7, and 6S. The manufacturing units for the production of the iPhone 12 are planned to start operations by the middle of this year. Production can be done at Wistron’s facility in Karnataka. 

Apple Inc is planning to shift the iPad manufacturing base from China to Vietnam and production is set to start by mid of this year. The company is also moving its HomePod mini production to be largely functional in Vietnam and is mobilizing its suppliers in the direction. Apple is said to already have relocated part of its Mac Mini production to Malaysia. Part of Macbook production is said to be mobilized later this year to Vietnam. 

One of Apple’s supply chain managers said, “Apple and many other tech companies all want out-of-China production capacities, and that has not slowed even though the US has a new president.” He added, “And they are studying not only peripheral products. Apple, for example, aims to build capacity in new locations, mostly Southeast Asia nations, for multiple core products, such as iPhones, iPods, MacBooks, AirPods, and others.” 

Apart from Wistron, the other two major suppliers of Apple devices, Foxconn and Pegatron are keen to enter the Indian market to produce Apple devices. All three firms have applied under the Indian government’s PLI (product linked incentive) for the $6.64 billion scheme.