Apple is preparing to increasingly rely on its Indian supply chain – as also recently emerged – and to confirm this is nothing less than Piyush Goyalthe Indian Minister of Trade and Industry who expressed a very interesting fact during a recent press conference.
According to reports from Goyal, the Cupertino house is already producing 5-7% of iPhones in India, but this percentage should go up to 25%. Obviously, the new generation of smartphones that will arrive in September has not been directly mentioned, but it is probable that it will be the production chain of the iPhone 15 that will kick off the transition, also because the recent rumors look precisely in this direction, with the factories of Foxconn that are already starting the first preparations for the realization of the next generation models in India.
Minister Goyal’s report is also in line with what has also emerged from other reports which suggest that by 2027 Apple will produce half of the iPhones in India, therefore the target of 25% – which is defined as another great success story for India – within the next few times it appears decidedly realistic and consistent with forecasts. At the moment it is not clear when the 25% quota will be reached – last year’s reports claimed by 2025 -, but it is likely that this could happen much earlier than expected.
However Apple’s desire to leave China – or in any case to greatly downsize its role in its supply chain – it is by now increasingly evident and also the recent problems caused by the Zero COVID policy – like the whole issue relating to the Zhengzhou plant – have made it even more necessary to distance ourselves from what is now becoming more and more clearly a uncomfortable ally.
Apple did not intervene to confirm or deny Minister Goyal’s statements, but it is quite plausible that the process of transferring increasingly significant shares of the production chain to India is now only a matter of time and that it will be precisely with the launch of the iPhone 15 that this phenomenon should assume greater importance.
