In response to the Monetary Instances, which cites sources “conversant in the matter,” Apple plans to assemble in India all iPhones meant for the US by the tip of 2026. The vast majority of Apple’s iPhones are presently made in China, however Chinese language-made merchandise have develop into a poisonous asset for US import.
The US authorities has imposed a 145 p.c tariff on items from China. Whereas smartphones are included in a 90-day reprieve, introduced in early April, President Trump has indicated this exclusion is certainly a brief one. Able to pay $2,949 for a base storage iPhone 17 Professional Max?
Apple’s supposed shifting of its manufacturing to India is an insurance coverage coverage towards such chaos sooner or later, however it didn’t start right here. In December 2024, we wrote about Apple’s rising reliance on India for manufacturing as a bulwark towards rising US-China tensions.
Indian manufacturing of iPhones commenced in 2017, beginning with the lower-cost iPhone SE. The nation started producing flagship-model launch iPhones in 2023.
Regardless of being the higher a part of a decade into Indian iPhone manufacturing, this newest alleged shift in technique nonetheless represents a really expensive turbocharging of its efforts—and sure at the least a doubling of output from Apple’s Indian manufacturing vegetation. WIRED approached Apple for remark, however had not obtained a response at time of publishing.
How Many Indian iPhones?
“Our estimates say that Apple produced round 40 to 43 million [iPhones] in India final 12 months,” says Navkendar Singh, affiliate vice chairman at IDC India. “About 12 or 13 million had been consumed within the India market totally, and the remaining had been exported out.”
Greater than 60 million iPhones are bought within the US annually, the place the sequence instructions a 57 p.c smartphone market share, in line with some estimates. “So about 80 to 85 million [iPhones] they might want to produce in India,” says Singh, ought to Apple need to fulfill US demand at present ranges whereas additionally serving native Indian market demand.
This growth doesn’t solely depend on Apple’s investments. As in all of Apple’s main manufacturing efforts, any Indian growth will contain companions, primarily Tata Electronics, Foxconn, and Pegatron.
“Tata is totally operating at capability proper now,” says Singh. Tata is the first pressure behind Indian iPhone manufacture at current. It operates an meeting plant in Tamil Nadu, within the nation’s south. It acquired Wistron’s iPhone-manufacturing Karnataka facility in 2023 and, in January 2025, closed on a majority 60 p.c stake in Taiwanese firm Pegatron’s Indian operation.
This in flip represents a consolidation of Indian iPhone manufacturing being stewarded by an Indian firm, Tata Electronics. Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron are all Taiwanese corporations, regardless of their international attain and significance.
Bother on the Manufacturing facility
Apple’s Tata-led manufacturing has not been totally clean. In 2023, Tata’s Hosur manufacturing unit, which produced iPhone casings, reportedly had a yield fee of simply 50 p.c, with half of the elements failing Apple’s rigorous high quality checks. This can be a very low yield fee, and it highlights the significance of a talented and environment friendly manufacturing operation.
“There simply isn’t a way of urgency,” a former Apple engineer informed the Monetary Instances, talking on Apple’s Indian operations in 2023. Apple’s 2025–2026 enhance in Indian manufacturing will likely be a check of whether or not that state of affairs has modified and by how a lot.
