India to make iPhone 14

APPLE will manufacture its new flagship smartphone in India, the US tech giant on said Monday (26), as it seeks to diversify production away from China.

The iPhone supply chain is based mainly in China, but the country’s zero-Covid policies and tensions with the United States have hurt production, analysts say.

“We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said.

The California-based firm already makes older iPhone models in India via Taiwanese manufacturers such as Foxconn, which has a factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Apple is commencing production of the iPhone 14 in India much earlier than it did for previous models, according to Canalys analyst Sanyam Chaurasia. “Over the last couple of years, it has been increasingly diversifying its supply chain to India,” Chaurasia said.

About 7.5 million iPhones – around three per cent of Apple’s global production – were made in India last year, the analyst added.

“We expect the local production of iPhones could reach more than 11 million this year,” he said.

The news will be a boost to prime minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” strategy, under which he has urged foreign businesses to manufacture

goods in the country.