Apple to boost iPhone production in India: Report

Dimapur, Jan. 27 (EMN): Apple is looking to ramp up production of its iPhone smartphones in India in a bid to reduce its dependency on its factories based in China, according to a report.

India has long been touted as the next big manufacturing hub for smartphones and according to a report from Nikkei Asia, Apple is considering to start producing the latest iPhone 12 series of smartphones in India soon. The iPhone 12 production is expected to be started as early as the first quarter at Wistron facility in Karnataka.

Alongside India, the report states that the Cupertino tech giant is looking to shift iPad manufacturing to Vietnam. The report also states that Apple is mobilising its suppliers to increase the production of its HomePod Mini products in Vietnam.

Apart from this, Apple is reported to have moved some of its Mac Mini production to Malaysia.

Although most of its computer production still remains in China, Apple's push for diversifying its production dependencies seems like a response to US-China tensions despite hopes that tensions will ease under new US President Joe Biden.

It may be mentioned that apart from Wistron, Foxconn and Pegatron — two key suppliers of Apple — have also expressed interest in manufacturing the iPhone series of smartphones in the Indian market.

The report states that Foxconn will invest $1 billion in India as part of Apple's push to shift production from China to India.

Apple has not published any official comment on the above report.