Apple wants nearly every iPhone 18 sold in the US to come from India

AppleInsider · April 25, 2025 11:47AM

Apple will reportedly dramatically accelerate manufacturing efforts in India, and may try to import nearly every iPhone 18 sold in the US from the country by the end of 2026. There are reasons to be skeptical that this will happen.

Foxconn's iPhone manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, India

Apple has been manufacturing iPhones in India for a few years. Opinions vary on how many devices imported to the US come from the country, but if Friday morning's report first made by the Financial Times is accurate, that number will skyrocket in the next 20 months.

While a lofty goal, we're skeptical about the report. At the moment, India produces about 40 million iPhones per year for both local distribution requirements and export -- a bit less than a fifth of Apple's global iPhone production.

In late 2023, Apple wanted to double iPhone production in India to about 25% of the global share by the end of 2024, which it did not quite accomplish. It grew assembly to about 15% of the global demand.

A previous report said that Apple wants to grow the global assembly share by another 10% in 2025. This also will not get the totals high enough to meet the forecast of Friday's report.

And, even if that 10% growth is accurate, plus Apple is somehow able to shunt all India production to the US, that still means an expansion of about 18 million iPhones assembled per year in the country. This would be the largest year-over-year expansion to date, by about double the volume of what's been accomplished so far per year.

More realistically, including iPhones that Apple is required to make and sell in India to be allowed to manufacture in the country, Apple would have to increase production in India by about 25 million iPhones per year, which is even more daunting.

And that's assuming that China's government will cooperate, plus Chinese companies Foxconn and Luxshare will be allowed to do so. In one famous stonewall, Apple employees and suppliers have had trouble securing work visas in India to work on improving the supply chains.

Also, Chinese authorities have talked to Apple's supply chain partners and other manufacturers to try and encourage them from moving subassembly production outside of the country. At the time, China cited the risk to employment.

While iPhone assembly lines in China work on two 12-hour shifts, Indian labor laws force Apple supply chain partners to have three eight-hour shifts. This required employing more workers in India than China. Though Apple did lobby governments successfully to allow 12-hour shifts, they haven't been implemented due to worker unrest.

There were also issues getting sub-assembly lines working in India. The sourcing of key components at a high enough quality to be approved by Apple proved to be troublesome.

Chinese authorities have also delayed and blocked the shipment of iPhone manufacturing equipment to India, often without any official explanation. And, when in-country, using the hardware was an issue as some system menus were in Chinese, and as such were harder to use by locally sourced labor.

The provenance of Friday's story isn't clear. Financial Times has little perspective on the issue, and cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Read on AppleInsider

zeus423 · April 25, 2025 3:25PM

Now we know what the “i” is for in iPhone

danox · April 25, 2025 3:28PM

You mean trans ship them from China to India and then to America…..

coolfactor · April 25, 2025 5:22PM

The technology exists now... Apple should focus on fully automated assembly in "micro-factories" located in each strategic market. As demand goes up and down, so does output. Time for a monumental shift in thinking.

9secondkox2 · April 25, 2025 8:20PM

If Apple can do it, great. Just remember the lessons learned from feeding China for decades.

For India, this is huge. Even if many Indian workers don’t want manufacturing jobs, it may be a great blessing for the Dalits, who’ve been treated very poorly due to the remnants of unfortunate caste system in the past.

9secondkox2 · April 25, 2025 8:21PM

coolfactor said:

The technology exists now... Apple should focus on fully automated assembly in "micro-factories" located in each strategic market. As demand goes up and down, so does output. Time for a monumental shift in thinking.

Great for apple, bad for jobs and economic health.

So…maybe not.

badmonk · April 25, 2025 8:47PM

Thanks Mike for the reporting and adding color to the FT article.

mikethemartian · April 25, 2025 10:08PM

Maybe Apple will start selling their products as Heathkits. :-)

davidw · April 25, 2025 11:07PM

coolfactor said:

The technology exists now... Apple should focus on fully automated assembly in "micro-factories" located in each strategic market. As demand goes up and down, so does output. Time for a monumental shift in thinking.

Whether the technology exist or not is not the problem. The problem is that the hundreds or thousands of parts and assemblies that goes into making an iPhone, will not be made in the same country as where they are assembled. Nearly all the parts will have to be shipped there. And all the parts will incur a tariff cost, when imported into the country where the iPhone will be assembled.

This is why most electronic devices are assembled in Asia. That's where the majority of the parts for them are made and shipping to any other country in Asia is not a big problem or major cost. The readily availability of all (or most of) the parts, is actually more important to keeping cost down, than the availability of cheap labor.

Also consider that Apple is not a manufacturer. Apple is not like auto makers. Apple do not own or operate the factories where their devices are assembled, (except maybe for their desktop Macs). In order for Apple to use fully automated factories to assemble their devices in the same country as their markets, companies that Apple contract out to assemble their devices (like Foxconn, Pengatron and Wistron) have to built and operate the factories there. Apple can help pay for it but it's still up to the Apple contractors to decide if they want to build and operate the "micro-factories". After all, they are the ones that will take the hit, if there's any reduction in production or if there are not enough orders to justify keeping the factory running.

applepoor · April 25, 2025 11:31PM

The soldering iron I used to build Heathkits in the 60s and 70s would totally destroy the current designed iPhone circuit boards with the size of the heat head.

We soldered individual three legged transistors to the board we were working on. They use millions today that are microscopic etches on the circuit board.

They may use a wave soldering device now that too may be obsolete.

stabitha_christie · April 26, 2025 9:57AM

9secondkox2 said:

If Apple can do it, great. Just remember the lessons learned from feeding China for decades.

For India, this is huge. Even if many Indian workers don’t want manufacturing jobs, it may be a great blessing for the Dalits, who’ve been treated very poorly due to the remnants of unfortunate caste system in the past.

You have been consistently saying that Dear Leader is going to use tariffs to move manufacturing to the U.S. and create jobs here. Now that the results of the tariffs are the jobs moving to India you are cheering on that as if were the plan all along long? Is the cult now all about MIGA? What happen to the art of the deal and the millions of Americans going to work to put little screws into iPhones? Was this all just nonsense? (it was) The mental gymnastics are just incredible and the cult abides.

dewme · April 26, 2025 11:31AM

davidw said:

coolfactor said:

The technology exists now... Apple should focus on fully automated assembly in "micro-factories" located in each strategic market. As demand goes up and down, so does output. Time for a monumental shift in thinking.

Whether the technology exist or not is not the problem. The problem is that the hundreds or thousands of parts and assemblies that goes into making an iPhone, will not be made in the same country as where they are assembled. Nearly all the parts will have to be shipped there. And all the parts will incur a tariff cost, when imported into the country where the iPhone will be assembled.

This is why most electronic devices are assembled in Asia. That's where the majority of the parts for them are made and shipping to any other country in Asia is not a big problem or major cost. The readily availability of all (or most of) the parts, is actually more important to keeping cost down, than the availability of cheap labor.

Also consider that Apple is not a manufacturer. Apple is not like auto makers. Apple do not own or operate the factories where their devices are assembled, (except maybe for their desktop Macs). In order for Apple to use fully automated factories to assemble their devices in the same country as their markets, companies that Apple contract out to assemble their devices (like Foxconn, Pengatron and Wistron) have to built and operate the factories there. Apple can help pay for it but it's still up to the Apple contractors to decide if they want to build and operate the "micro-factories". After all, they are the ones that will take the hit, if there's any reduction in production or if there are not enough orders to justify keeping the factory running.

You are absolutely correct. The other effect here has to do with the factory workers. I’ve worked for a few large US companies that started off with their own manufacturing capabilities. One recurring pattern was that the workers who were dedicated to the company itself would go through cycles of working a lot with OT to being furloughed when there were changeovers, cyclical demand, or a big contract was awarded to a company that put in a lowball proposal. In some cases the company winning the bid was clearly losing money on the contract with hopes of winning a profitable contract down the line.

All of the cases I was involved with had the manufacturing resources collocated with the engineering resources. The boom-bust cycles of the manufacturing folks was very apparent. At some point these companies moved to contract manufacturing. When this happened the onsite manufacturing facilities were isolated from the engineering facilities because the same manufacturing people were now steadily employed by manufacturing products from multiple vendors, including competitors.

The result was beneficial for the manufacturing workers. Well, until the contract manufacturer moved to SE Asia. This tells me that the road to repatriating manufacturing back to the US should be focused not on individual companies but contract manufacturers. But that doesn’t solve the supply problems.

anantksundaram · April 26, 2025 12:03PM

I recall that, for so many years, so many here just laughed off Apple’s long term India strategy as blather and fantasy.

Guess what…

red oak · April 26, 2025 2:57PM

Foxconn is Taiwan company, not Chinese

There were dramatic iPhone plant capacity increases and large brand new plants planned for India even before the tariffs. I assume these efforts are now greatly accelerated. Foxconn is building the 2nd largest iPhone plant in the world now in India. Prior to tariffs, it was slated to go live in 2027 - I would expect they fast track that to sometime in 2026. This is one of 4 new India plants I believe are planned for the next 3 years

US market needs ~ 60 million units/yr. It will be close, but based on latest India build-out plans they could do that for 2026. If you look out to 2028 and all the plant investments, India should be able to produce 40-50% of all world-wide iPhones

Apple has hit the gas pedal here

edited April 26

9secondkox2 · April 26, 2025 5:23PM

Stabitha_Christie said:

9secondkox2 said:

If Apple can do it, great. Just remember the lessons learned from feeding China for decades.

For India, this is huge. Even if many Indian workers don’t want manufacturing jobs, it may be a great blessing for the Dalits, who’ve been treated very poorly due to the remnants of unfortunate caste system in the past.

You have been consistently saying that Dear Leader is going to use tariffs to move manufacturing to the U.S. and create jobs here. Now that the results of the tariffs are the jobs moving to India you are cheering on that as if were the plan all along long? Is the cult now all about MIGA? What happen to the art of the deal and the millions of Americans going to work to put little screws into iPhones? Was this all just nonsense? (it was) The mental gymnastics are just incredible and the cult abides.

Incorrect. I’ve been “constantly” saying they are to create fair trade. And “occasionally” reminding others that another factor is “encouraging”a return to American manufacturing..

‘straw man eliminated.

irenew · April 26, 2025 8:55PM

The part of this article mentioning 12 hour shifts in the China factories and successful lobbying to get the same in India is not really flattering for Apple...

Interesting to see what labor rules will be implemented in the Apple US manufacturing. ...oh, I forgot... That has to be robots only.

danox · April 27, 2025 12:21AM

anantksundaram said:

I recall that, for so many years, so many here just laughed off Apple’s long term India strategy as blather and fantasy.

Guess what…

Still is where is that high-speed rail system, dam or Thorium Reactor in India? 5 to 10 years minimum for India to manage one hit from the cricket bat just once for Apple, and guess what? You know who won’t be in the White House by then anyway….

dewme · April 27, 2025 12:25AM

anantksundaram said:

I recall that, for so many years, so many here just laughed off Apple’s long term India strategy as blather and fantasy.

Guess what…

India has long been an outsourcing destination for software development, especially in the Bangalore area.

xed · April 27, 2025 3:26AM

anantksundaram said:

I recall that, for so many years, so many here just laughed off Apple’s long term India strategy as blather and fantasy.

Guess what…

They're working on it but it's still not on par. I would imagine that India is still another decade out to match what China can do today.

stabitha_christie · April 27, 2025 9:54PM

9secondkox2 said:

Stabitha_Christie said:

9secondkox2 said:

If Apple can do it, great. Just remember the lessons learned from feeding China for decades.

For India, this is huge. Even if many Indian workers don’t want manufacturing jobs, it may be a great blessing for the Dalits, who’ve been treated very poorly due to the remnants of unfortunate caste system in the past.

You have been consistently saying that Dear Leader is going to use tariffs to move manufacturing to the U.S. and create jobs here. Now that the results of the tariffs are the jobs moving to India you are cheering on that as if were the plan all along long? Is the cult now all about MIGA? What happen to the art of the deal and the millions of Americans going to work to put little screws into iPhones? Was this all just nonsense? (it was) The mental gymnastics are just incredible and the cult abides.

Incorrect. I’ve been “constantly” saying they are to create fair trade. And “occasionally” reminding others that another factor is “encouraging”a return to American manufacturing..

‘straw man eliminated.

This is blatantly untrue.

mattinoz · April 27, 2025 10:42PM

Maybe Apple can see a dramatic reduction in US demand due to isolationist policies so the production can grow to reach the reduced demand but not the current demand.

then if they gear a product like 17e around what could be automated for local assembly. To cover the long tail demand over the product life. Plus having the machines in visible locations lets them control the narrative of why it is being done.

Apple wants nearly every iPhone 18 sold in the US to come from India

Comments