India - page 2

With its population of more than 1.3 billion people, India is the only country on Earth with a population that rivals China’s. (By comparison, the United States’ is a paltry 328 million.) It’s no wonder, then, that Apple has been hungrily eying the market for quite some time.

To date, success has been a bit disappointing, however. That may be changing, though, with a new report claiming that Apple doubled its market share in India during the last quarter, based on research from Counterpoint and CyberMedia.

Apple has temporarily stopped working with Wistron, the iPhone supplier that this month had riots break out at its Indian factory due to alleged mistreatment of employees.

In a statement, Apple said that it has put the manufacturer on probation. It will not receive new Apple business until it has carried out corrective actions.

The state government in Karnataka, India found multiple labor law violations at the iPhone factory where workers rioted last weekend, a new report claims.

The riot took place at a Wistron factory. It resulted in $7 million of damage, with thousands of iPhones stolen during the protest. The government report — from the Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety and Health — says that underpayment of wages, poor factory conditions, and irregular hours were all common at the plant.

Riots broke out over the weekend at a Wistron factory in southern India that produces iPhones, resulting in around 100 people being arrested. Thousands of iPhones were stolen during the incident.

The riots were reportedly related to allegations about unpaid wages and other exploitation. Workers were allegedly not paid for several months, and made to do mandatory overtime. Protestors broke windows at the factory on the outskirts of Bangalore, pulled down CCTV cameras, and flipped cars onto their sides.

Preorders for the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are “super high” in India, largely thanks to authorized resellers offering good trade-in deals and monthly installment payments, according to a report published Wednesday.

Apple doesn’t reveal iPhone sales figures anymore. That means Apple watchers must be on the lookout for other early signs to indicate how well new iPhones are doing. In India, at least, that appears to be pretty darn well for iPhone 12.

Update: Apple opened the new online store today. You can check it out here.

Apple will officially launch its Apple Online Store in India on September 23, finally bringing Apple’s online delivery experience to the world’s second most populous nation.

Apple will open its first Apple Online Store for the India market next month, according to a new report by Bloomberg.

The online store will reportedly be up and running for the Dussehra through Diwali holiday season, which kicks off October 25 and runs through November 14. It comes as Apple is upping its focus on the India market.

Apple manufacturer Wistron will reportedly build iPhone 12 models in India, although production will only begin in mid-2021. These handsets will reportedly be manufactured at the company’s Narsapura plant and be aimed at the local market.

The same report, from Business Standard, says that Wistron will also begin manufacturing the 2020 iPhone SE models by the end of this year.

Wistron, one of the Apple manufacturers building iPhones in India, is reportedly planning to hire up to 10,000 people for its iPhone plant in Narasapura, claims a report for the New Indian Express.

The report notes that the facility is “expected to start commercial production” of the iPhone at the facility in the coming days. Wistron already operates an iPhone factory in Bengaluru around 70 kilometers away.

For the first time, Apple is manufacturing its current flagship iPhone in India, a Friday report from the Economic Times claims. The report says Foxconn is building the iPhone 11 at its plant near Chennai.

While many previous iPhones made in India have been manufactured for the local market, the story says Apple might export these devices internationally. Building some of its flagship iPhones in India would help lessen Apple’s reliance on China.

Yet another major Apple contract manufacturer is embracing India as a possible location for building iPhones. According to Bloomberg, Pegatron is the third major iPhone maker — after Foxconn and Wistron — to explore setting up a plant in India.

Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn has successfully resolved an issue that was stopping its component shipments from China being imported to India, amid tensions between the two nations.

Customs officials were holding shipments from China following violent incidents at the Himalayan border, which is shared by China and India. This was reportedly causing problems for Foxconn, which carries out iPhone manufacturing (among other things) in both countries.

Apple is looking to ramp up its investment in India, shifting close to a fifth of its current production capacity from China to Indian manufacturers, according to a Monday report from the Economic Times.

“We expect Apple to produce up to $40 billion worth of smartphones, mostly for exports through its contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn,” a senior government official told the publication.

iPhone achieved 78 percent growth in India’s fast-growing smartphone market year-on-year for the first quarter of 2020, new figures from Counterpoint Research suggest.

While Apple is still a tiny fraction of the Indian smartphone market, that makes the iPhone the third fastest-growing brand in the country, following Realme and Oppo. There’s still a long way to go before it can threaten the top-selling likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung, however.

iPhone assemblers in India have been forced to suspect production due to a country-wide COVID-19 lockdown, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Facilities owned by Foxconn and Wistron are out of action for now. Production won’t resume until Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government lifts new lockdown measures.

Apple has raised the price of several iPhone models — including the top-tier iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max — yet again in India, risking denting sales in the country that were just starting to take off.

The price hike is just under 2%, making it smaller than the sizable iPhone price increase Apple introduced in India in 2018. It follows increased import duties announced during India’s Union Budget 2020.

Apple hosted shareholders for an annual meeting Wednesday, and it was seemingly business as usual. CEO Tim Cook said the company will open its first Apple Store in India this year. He explained why Apple’s streaming service passed on a Friends reunion. He defended Apple’s role in FBI investigations when asked to retrieve iPhone data.

But the tech giant finds itself at an unusual moment in its history with a deadly coronavirus in China that halted business travel, crippled manufacturing, closed all 42 Apple Stores in the country and forced Cupertino to pull back on its March-quarter revenue protections.

Apple captured a record 75.6% chunk of the premium smartphone market in India, a report by International Data Corporation (IDC) claims.

That market segment covers handsets $500 and above. That’s undoubtedly impressive, although it’s still a fraction of the overall market in a country where the average phone price is $159 and the average annual income is $1,892.

Apple is moving some more of its iPhone production to India, as China continues to grapple with the spread of coronavirus.

Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has some details as to how coronavirus is impacting on Apple factories in China.

Apple was reportedly the fastest growing premium smartphone brand in India last year — with a massive 41% growth year-over-year. The iPhone XR wound up being the country’s most popular “ultra premium” handset, claims Counterpoint Research. This was followed by Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Plus and OnePlus 7 Pro.

That’s great news for Apple. But there’s still a long way to go.

Apple supplier Wistron has plans to assemble printed circuit boards for future iPhones at a new plant in southern India, a new report claims.

Wistron already manufactures iPhone 6s and 7 models in India. It started out manufacturing iPhones for the Indian market by building iPhone SE modes in 2017.

Apple has reduced the price of HomePod to $280, a further reduction on the $349 it charged initially for its smart speaker. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be living in India to take advantage of it.

Having released the HomePod in 2018 in the United States, Apple has finally launched it in India. This heavily populated market is comparable in size to China. However, Apple has not yet been able to make too many inroads in terms of sales.

Apple’s first retail store in India reportedly won‘t open in time for the launch of the 2020 iPhone. And even online sales allegedly won’t begin until the second half of this year.

There have supposedly been problems in Apple’s efforts to begin selling iPhones and other devices directly to consumers in India.

There are few big markets that Apple has yet to crack. But one of the biggest, India, it’s really struggled with. In a population of more than 1.311 billion people, Apple holds just a few measly percentage points of the local smartphone market.

But things may be looking up slightly, as a new report makes clear.

Apple contract manufacturer Wistron is reportedly ramping up its iPhone production abilities in India. Wistron already has two plants located in Bengaluru, which have been producing iPhones for the local market. But now it’s got a third, located in Narasapura, which will also build phones for Apple.

This will greatly increase Wistron’s abilities to build large quantities of iPhones for Apple.