Another shock to China as Apple starts making iPhone SE 2020 in India
In 2020, assembly of the latest iPhone 11 stared at Foxconn’s Chennai plant, followed by now the iPhone SE at Wistron’s plant in Karnataka.
New Delhi: Apple has started producing the iPhone SE (2020) in India. Apple confirmed that its newest iPhone model is being manufactured in India. With this, the company now produces four models of the iPhones in India through its manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron.
The local manufacturing of the iPhone SE (2020), which has commenced at a Wistron facility in Karnataka, would help Apple avoid an import duty of 20 percent that mobile phone manufacturers need to pay for importing their models from global markets. Apart from the iPhone SE (2020), the Cupertino giant has been producing five iPhone models domestically in the country, including the last year’s iPhone 11.
When did Apple start making phones in India?
Apple started assembling phones in India with the original iPhone SE in 2017. The phone was then already a couple of years old, but still popular in India because of its lower price points. In 2018, it moved assembly of the iPhone 6s also to India. This was followed up by the iPhone 7 in 2019. All these units were manufactured by Wistron in its Bangalore plant.
In 2019, Apple’s partner Foxconn started assembling the iPhone XR at its plant in Chennai. This was a more recent phone and showed how Cupertino had started taking the Indian market more seriously.
In 2020, assembly of the latest iPhone 11 stared at Foxconn’s Chennai plant, followed by now the iPhone SE at Wistron’s plant in Karnataka. Both these are the latest offerings from the company.
Will production in India bring down prices locally?
Apple usually has a global pricing strategy and that is seldom fine tuned for a local market, even where it produces hardware. There are also other reasons why prices won’t be impacted by local production.
For one, the phones are only being assembled in India, and there is hardly any local sourcing of components. So, the cost of the production is not exactly coming down.
The iPhone SE (2020) was launched in India in April — alongside its global debut. It carries a starting price of Rs. 42,500 and comes in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage options. The iPhone SE (2020) is powered by Apple’s A13 SoC that’s also available on the iPhone 11 series. Further, the new iPhone SE comes with a 12-megapixel rear camera and packs in a chassis that looks quite similar to the iPhone 8.