Apple Inc’s iPhone exports from India soared by one-third in the six months through last month, underscoring its push to expand manufacturing in the country and reduce dependence on China.
The US company exported nearly US$6 billion of India-made iPhones, a one-third increase in value terms from a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said.
The dollar figure refers to the devices’ estimated factory gate value, not the retail price.
Photo: Reuters
Apple is expanding its manufacturing network in India at a rapid clip, taking advantage of local subsidies, a skilled workforce and advances in the country’s technological capabilities. India is a crucial part of the company’s effort to lessen its reliance on China, where risks have grown along with Beijing’s tensions with the US.
Three of Apple’s suppliers — Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) and Pegatron Corp (和碩), and homegrown Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd — assemble iPhones in southern India. Foxconn’s local unit, based on the outskirts of Chennai, is the top supplier in India and accounts for half of the country’s iPhone exports.
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group’s electronics manufacturing arm exported about US$1.7 billion in iPhones from its factory in Karnataka state from April to last month, the people said.
Tata acquired the unit from Taiwan’s Wistron Corp (緯創) last year, becoming the first Indian assembler of Apple’s bestselling product.
IPhones account for the bulk of India’s smartphone exports and helped the product category become the top export to the US at US$2.88 billion in the first five months of this fiscal year, government data showed.
Five years ago, before Apple expanded manufacturing in India, the country’s annual smartphone exports to the US were a meager US$5.2 million.
To be sure, Apple relies on China for a bulk of its manufacturing and sales, and India is unlikely to become its top market anytime soon.
However, subsidies from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration helped Apple assemble its pricey iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models, with better cameras and titanium bodies, in India this year.
The company is also seeking to open new retail stores, including in the southern tech hub of Bengaluru and the western city of Pune, after launching its first shops in the financial hub of Mumbai and the capital, New Delhi, last year.
Apple assembled US$14 billion of iPhones in India in the fiscal year through March, doubling production and accelerating its drive to diversify beyond China. Of that, it exported about US$10 billion worth of iPhones.
Separately, Apple on Monday rolled out its first set of Apple Intelligence features across its premium iPhone, iPad and Mac devices and introduced a new 24-inch iMac desktop with an AI-focused M4 processor.
The iMac, starting at the same US$1,299 price as the previous model, is faster and sports an enhanced Neural Engine for handling artificial intelligence (AI) tasks, the company said in an announcement.
Apple on Monday began taking orders for the new model, which arrives in stores on Friday next week.
Although Apple previewed a broader set of AI capabilities in June, the initial features represent only a sliver of its plans for the service. The lineup includes writing tools for summarizing and editing text, a new visual interface for the Siri digital assistant, and the ability to recap incoming text messages and other notifications.
Some of the most anticipated Apple Intelligence capabilities are not coming until December. That includes an integration with ChatGPT and tools for editing images and creating custom emojis, as well as automatic sorting of messages in the iPhone’s e-mail app.
An upgraded Siri and support for devices in the EU would not arrive until April.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his