On December 8, according to a Wall Street ** report, Apple intends to make more than 50 million iPhones in India every year in the next 2 to 3 years, and plans to produce tens of millions of additional units after that. If successful, India will make a quarter of the world's iPhones by the end of 2030. But China will still be the world's largest producer of iPhones.
The first phase of Hon Hai's current plant in the southern Indian state of Karnataka is expected to start operations in April 2024, with the goal of producing 20 million mobile phones a year, most of them, in the next two to three years, according to people familiar with the details. Hon Hai is also planning to build another iPhone production plant, similar in size to the Karnataka Hub, but plans are still in the initial stages.
According to the report, Apple also indicated that India will carry out a new product introduction (NPI) process for low-priced iPhones, which is expected to be sold in 2025. The Apple team will work with foundries to translate product blueprints and prototypes into detailed manufacturing plans. Until now, the NPI process for iPhones has only been carried out in Chinese mainland.
Sources pointed out that relying on the factories recently bought by Hon Hai, Pegatron and India's Tata, Wistron hints that Apple intends to increase the annual production of Indian-made iPhones to at least 5000 60 million units within two or three years. After that, the annual production capacity may be further expanded by tens of millions of units.
Notably, according to Nikkei, citing sources who have been briefed, Apple is planning to allocate product development resources for iPad tablets to Vietnam.
According to Nikkei, Apple is working with China's BYD Electronics, a major assembler of iPads, to transfer iPad New Product Introduction (NPI) resources to Vietnam, which is the first time that Apple has moved NPI resources for such important device products to Vietnam.
The report also pointed out that a new iPad will begin trial production engineering verification in Vietnam around mid-February next year, and it will be available in the second half of next year.
Apple and BYD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It's worth noting that Apple's other top performers, such as Luxshare Precision and Foxconn, also invested in Vietnam earlier this year to further decentralize production outside of China.
Editor: Xinzhixun-Lin Zi.