Apple starts iPhone 15 production in India as it plans to eventually move production out of China

We are less than a month away from September 12th which is when Apple is rumored to be unveiling the iPhone 15 series. According to Bloomberg, Apple has already started production of the iPhone 15 at a Foxconn factory in Sriperumbudur, India. The plant will start shipping the new phones just weeks after new 2023 iPhone models will start shipping from China. Reduction of the time gap between the delivery of iPhone models made in India and those manufactured in China is a major Apple goal this year.

It has been no secret that Apple is seeking to slowly move production of the iPhone and other devices out of China. In the event that the U.S. starts imposing import taxes on devices made in China like it did a few years ago, or the U.S. and China end up in a war, Apple reportedly has drawn up plans to move production of its devices into markets like India and Vietnam before any issues come to light.

Back in April, we told you that this year, for the first time, Apple will be building non-Pro iPhone models in India and China simultaneously. As TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said earlier this year, "The iPhone 14's mass production schedule in India is still about six weeks behind China, but the gap has improved significantly." And with the iPhone 15, the gap will reportedly disappear. Before the iPhone 14, iPhone production in China was ahead of Indian production by six to nine months.

India, the second largest smartphone market in the world after China, has been looking to transform itself into a global manufacturing center under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As of the end of last March, Apple was building 7% of its iPhone handsets inside India at factories owned by Apple suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron. In dollar terms, about $7 billion worth of iPhone units were manufactured in India during the fiscal year that ended in March which tripled the value of Indian iPhone production during the preceding fiscal year.

Besides reducing the timing between shipments of new iPhone models out of India and China, Apple is looking to produce more handsets in India. To that end, Apple will be also building the iPhone 15 in India at a plant formerly owned by iPhone manufacturer Wistron and is now owned by the Tata Group

Ultimately, the number of iPhones built in India will depend on the factories' abilities to obtain components from the supply chain and the ability of Foxconn and the others to ramp up more assembly lines. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will see the largest changes among the non-Pro models in years. Both will add the Dynamic Island notification system, a stacked 48MP image sensor (which the Pro models won't get until next year), the hand-me-down 4nm A16 Bionic chipset that currently runs the iPhone 14 Pro series, and a USB-C port for charging and data transfer. Also, the batteries should see a hike in capacity.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be powered by the more powerful and energy efficient 3nm A17 Bionic, sport a new titanium chassis, get a hike to 8GB of RAM from 6GB on models with 256GB and more of storage, and receive the aforementioned USB-C charging port. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will become the first iPhone ever to feature a periscope lens that folds inside the phone and uses prisms to bounce light from the lens to the image sensor. The periscope lens will allows Apple to deliver 6x optical zoom up from the 3x optical zoom available to iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max users.

Apple opened its first Apple Stores in India in April and now sees the country not only as an important retail market for the iPhone, but also as an important base for manufacturing the device. Apple also gets the advantage of avoiding import taxes on the iPhone units it produces in India. And while India is crazy for smartphones, it is a developing country after all which explains why Android phones have a 95% market share in the country. 

Still, by avoiding import taxes on the iPhone units made in India, units produced domestically might be slightly more affordable in a market where pricing is a major factor.