India is becoming a relevant market for Apple, specifically on the subject of iPhone exports, as these exceeded 1,000 million dollars in just five months and are expected to reach 2,500 million dollars after 12 months, which They are fulfilled in March 2023, according to a report by Bloomberg.
This annual figure represents almost double the 1,300 million dollars that Apple obtained from the export of its iPhones from the South Asian country until March 2022. In addition, it demonstrates the potential of India in its progress in the manufacture of products. electronics.
“Apple’s healthy growth in manufacturing and export scale shows that India is gradually assuming an important position in the company’s China-plus-one strategy and for India this is a great sign of the success of its financial incentive scheme.” , said IDC analyst Navkendar Singh.
It should be remembered that in 2020, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendrá Modi announced an incentive of 6,000 million dollars to encourage the technology company to increase production in that country and now it is becoming an alternative to China as its factory.
India’s outgoing shipments go mainly to Europe and the Middle East, coming from Apple’s main Taiwanese manufacturers, including Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, which have received government incentives and have plants in the south. from India.
From April to August of this year, India has been in charge of exporting iPhone models 11, 12 and 13, while exports of the new 14 model will begin soon, according to the US media report, which also detailed that manufacturing of this device began last month.
On the other hand, the Indian government wants one more slice of the pie from Apple and other companies. That is why it is developing various plans, with the aim of increasing financial incentives and attracting manufacturers of tablets and laptops, whether they are iPads and MacBooks or other brands.
Tensions affect Apple’s business in China
A week ago, Apple announced that a part of the production of the new iPhone 14 would move to India, with the aim of diversifying its supply chain outside of China, due to the fact that in this country they are suffering from geopolitical tensions and strong restrictions. by covid-19.
During the pandemic, when there have been outbreaks of covid-19, Apple has had to deal with factory closures; however, there is also concern about Taiwan, which is creating a lot of tension between the governments of China and the United States.
“Apple wants to diversify and not put all its eggs in one basket,” Tarun Pathak, director of research at Counterpoint, told CNN Business. But the work of India is still a lot. Last year, for example, around 3 million iPhones were manufactured in that territory against the 230 million that were produced in China.
Also, leaving China is complicated for Apple. It took nearly two decades to build its supply chain, and an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that it would take about eight years to churn out 10% of production capacity. Despite this outlook, JP Morgan expects 25% of Apple phones to be made in India by 2025.
