Apple to manufacture iPhone 14 models in India from launch: Analyst

In the last couple of years, Apple has consistently increased the capacity of its Indian manufacturing plant. As per a previous report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering moving out of China and expanding its manufacturing capacity in other countries like Vietnam and India. However, the company is considering India as the closest alternative to China. Recently, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also corroborated the information.   

The iPhone 14 will be manufactured in India

As per Kuo, the upcoming iPhone 14 will be manufactured simultaneously in India and China from the day of launch. With previous models, India has been behind in manufacturing the iPhone by a couple of months. Kuo says, "India's iPhone capacities/shipments still have a considerable gap with China, but it's an important milestone for Apple in building a non-Chinese iPhone production site."

Although Kuo does not mention this, the iPhone 14 could be manufactured at the Foxconn plant near Chennai. In the past, the plant has manufactured models like the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 13. Manufacturing iPhones in India gives Apple a chance to provide discounts via third-party retailers. Last year during the festive season, the iPhone 11 (128GB) was available for below Rs. 40,000 and the iPhone 12 (128GB) for under Rs. 55,000 in India. 

In the future, if Apple finds situations favourable, it might increase the capacity of the manufacturing plants in India or even set up new ones. Up until now, the company has got millions of iPhones manufactured in China, which are then sold around the world. However, with Apple's increasing trust in the Indian manufacturing plant, seeing more iPhone assembly lines in India might not be very far away. 

In 2022, Apple's focus seems to be shifting to the 'Pro' models of the iPhone. As per a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo, the latest A16 Bionic chipset will be exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Building up on that, the vanilla iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Max could feature last year's A15 Bionic chipset, providing similar performance as the iPhone 13 series. Until now, both the regular and the Pro versions of the iPhone were shipped with the latest chipset.