Apple plans to start manufacturing another iPhone in India, according to a new report.
Partner Wistron has already started trial production of the iPhone 6s Plus at its Bangalore plant, where it has been assembling the iPhone SE since last year. Source say mass-production will begin in “the next couple of weeks.”
Perhaps attempting to avoid its own Facebook-style privacy scandal, Apple has supposedly hit a road block in collaborating with the Indian government. The clash regards a government-approved anti-spam mobile app, which Apple was concerned violated user privacy.
And Indian regulators aren’t too happy about it!
India has just struck Apple another harsh blow by raising its duty on imported mobile phones from 15 percent to 20 percent.
The move, which will make imported iPhones more expensive, follows less than two months after the country raised the import duty from 10 percent to 15 percent. It comes at a time when Apple is trying to grow its market in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.
Apple manufacturer Wistron is reportedly putting the final touches on a deal that will allow it to secure another 100 acres of land in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru.
The $157 million facility will be used to start building iPhone 6s handsets in India. At present, Wistron only produces the iPhone SE in India, although it always planned to expand to other handsets after proving that Indian manufacturing was viable.
Apple’s Indian boss Sanjay Kaul is reportedly leaving Apple with immediate effect, following the company’s slowest growth in India in more than five years — and no sign of things turning around soon.
He will be replaced by Michel Coulomb as its top sales executive in India, previously the managing director for Apple in South Asia.
Apple has raised the price of many iPhone handsets in India, following last week’s increase in import duties on the new handset.
In new rules announced last week, the cost of importing smartphones to India was raised from 10 to 15 percent. As we noted at the time, Apple’s choices were to either raise the price of iPhones in India, or to eat some of the cost itself in order to keep pricing competitive. It seems that Apple did some combination of the two — since prices have been increased an average of 3.5 percent.
Apple may be keen to grow its business in India, but it’s certainly not getting any favors from the government.
In a new ruling, it’s been announced that the import tax paid on smartphones is being raised from 10 to 15 percent in a decision that will hurt Apple’s business in the country. Unless Apple absorbs the cost itself, this will make its iPhones more expensive at a time when it is desperate to get more handsets into customers’ hands.
Apple wants to ramp up its iPhone manufacturing in India, but coming to an arrangement with the Indian government over all the necessary details — including Apple’s desired tax breaks — is proving to be hard work.
A new report claims that Apple has asked the government in India to defer a planned increase on import taxes for mobile phone parts, but that the request is unlikely to be successful.
Retailers in India are not happy about the way that Apple is reducing their cut of the new iPhone X handsets, by reducing retail margins on the device by close to 30 percent.
As a result, some retailers in the country — such as Bengaluru-based Sangeetha Mobiles, which owns 400 stores across India — have stopped taking orders for the iPhone X altogether.
Apple is set to make another major play for emerging markets next year with the rumored release of a new iPhone SE 2 handset.
According to a rumor out of Apple’s supply chain, the new iPhone SE 2 will be assembled by Taiwanese manufacturer Winstron, only all units will be put together in Bengaluru, India.
