DECOUPLING: Apple doubles India iPhone production to $14 billion as it shifts from China.
As relations between the U.S. and China have soured, Apple has worked to diversify its supply chain by expanding production in countries like Vietnam and India. It’s a big shift for the iPhone maker, which has historically relied on China for manufacturing.
Apple now makes around 1 in 7, or 14%, of its iPhones in India, twice the amount it produced there last year, the report said. The manufacturer Pegatron assembled around 17% of those iPhones, while Foxconn produced around 67%, according to the report. Wistron built the rest.
In June 2023, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other tech executives met with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, at the White House. Cook told CNBC after the meeting that India represents a “huge opportunity.” Apple opened its first retail stores in the country last year.
China remains a crucial market for Apple, but sales have been off to a rocky start this year. A Counterpoint Research report from March found that iPhone sales in China dropped 24% in the first six weeks of 2024. The firm said Apple faces significant competition from other smartphone vendors like Huawei.
It could also be that Chinese consumers are choosing to buy Chinese as Western firms ditch China.