Apple’s high-grade smartphones, which have been assembled in India by Foxconn’s local unit, are reportedly expected to be available in the market at reduced prices by this August.
The source, who wanted to remain anonymous, has stated that India-assembled iPhone XR and XS will possibly release in India by the next month. There are other smartphones of Apple too which would be made available in India once the pending approvals are granted.
There have been no comments affirming this from either Apple or Foxconn or Wistron.
Devices that are locally assembled will help the company save on high tax rates that are imposed on the import of fully-built devices. Alongside this, developing more assembly centres in the country will help Apple meet local sourcing norms for opening its own retail stores in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market.
Local production will give Apple the leeway to play with the margins of their distributors and indirectly price their phones lower – Rushabh Doshi, a research director at tech consultancy Canalys
It is known that the local unit of Foxconn would begin assembling iPhone X family devices starting this year in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Moreover, through the local unit of Wistron Corp in Bengaluru, Cupertino has already been assembling the iPhones SE, 6S and 7 models in India.
Neil Shah, a tech researcher at the Hong-Kong based Counterpoint Research, has said that some of the Wistron-assembled iPhone 6s and 7 even get exported to the European markets.
With India being promoted as a lucrative hub for smartphone manufacturing as a market with countless wireless connections and cheap labour, more and more global smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung and Oppo have swiftly proliferated in the country.
Apple’s high-end devices, unfortunately, constitute only about 1% of market share in India which is at present dominated by the relatively less expensive Chinese brands such as OnePlus.
Technology analysts also feel that local assembling units of Apple Inc in India might help ease trade war tension between the U.S. and China.
