Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL; DR
- Apple is taking some iPhone 13 production to India.
- Increasing production in India could benefit Apple’s rivals.
Apple is taking some iPhone 13 production to India, a move that could boost the entire smartphone industry.
As a result of the global epidemic, Apple is working to diversify its supply chain, moving some products out of China. While the company is already building some older models in India, shifting some of the iPhone 13 production there could improve production for its competitors.
Apple’s market share may be dwarfed by the Android ecosystem, but the company remains one of the largest standalone manufacturers and dominates parts of the industry. Wherever Apple sets up shop for production, the whole ecosystem of support agencies and skilled labor is born. China has always been Apple’s top manufacturing hub, due to being Foxconn’s hometown. However, Apple is working to reduce dependence on a single country or region. India was a natural choice because it already had a technology-centric workforce
See also: Advantages and disadvantages of making smartphones in the United States
To be clear, Android makers like Apple have already made some of their phones in India. However, few companies have the supply chain skills that Apple is known for. In addition, since the iPhone 13 is the first model to be released in India at the same time as the United States, building a high-tech flagship model in the country will only enhance the existing production ecosystem.
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke of the importance of such an ecosystem and why China was so critical of the company’s success:
The products we really need for advanced tools, and the precision you need to have, the materials we make are sophisticated. And the tooling skills are very deep here. In the US, you can have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we can fill the room. In China, you can fill multiple football fields.
As Apple’s iPhone production in India grows, so will the country’s skills, talents and technology ecosystem. It will help Samsung, Google and others, provide a manufacturing region that can ultimately compete with China in both quality and quantity.
A diversified supply chain, in turn, should help the industry avoid the kind of deficit it has been plagued by over the past few years and get the device into the hands of consumers faster.