Priyank Kharge, a local information technology officer in India, said in an interview that Apple will jointly build the iPhone production line in Bangalore, India, Karnataka (Karnataka), India, jointly with the Taiwan WEF (Wistron). He also said that apple CEO Tim Cook met with him when he visited India in January and confirmed the timetable.
Joyce Chou, a spokesman for WEF, responded that the company's factory in Bangalore would start assembling the production of smartphones in the first half of 2017, but refused to answer whether it was the iPhone production line.
Apple has not yet expressed its views on the matter.
Use the "Chinese model" to renew the India manufacturing myth?
As India's information technology powerhouse, Bangalore is located in Karnataka known as the "Silicon Valley of India". Kharge said that the production line of iPhone will be concentrated in Bangalore, where all the equipment assembled will be mainly supplied to India's domestic market. If Apple needs to cooperate with more manufacturers, the government will be happy to help.
According to statistics, India officially replaced the United States last year to become the world's second largest smartphone market, and in the next five years, it will also contribute more than 1 billion sales to the global smartphone market.
India-mobile-phone-users
(the picture comes from: TheTechNews)
In spite of the rapid growth of the industry, local manufacturers in India have few words in the entire supply chain of smartphones compared to Chinese and Korean handset manufacturers in the India market. According to the statistics of Market Research Institute IDC, in the "Diwali" shopping season in October last year, Samsung, Lenovo and millet jointly grabbed more than half of the India smartphone market, and local brands such as Micromax and Intex were continuously compressed.
It is also worth noting that local manufacturers in India are only able to engage in the most basic assembly work due to technical backwardness, and it is difficult for Asian rivals, such as China, that have already formed a mature industrial chain.
But with the increase of production, manpower and transportation costs, China's manufacturing advantage is slowly decreasing. And Chinese have similar genes in India, there is a great possibility to carry the banner of manufacturing industry.
In September 2014, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi (Narendra Modi), proposed the "Make in India" policy, hoping to take advantage of India's manpower, land, resources and other advantages, vigorously develop the manufacturing industry, and attract more overseas investors and manufacturers to invest in India.
Make-in-india-modi
(the picture comes from: Wall Street Journal)
Aruna Sundararajan, an official of India electronic information technology department, said:
India has great potential to become an industry leader in the ecosystem of smart phone industry, which requires us to take steps step by step.
Before making "India manufacturing", India only had two mobile phone assembly lines, but only two years later, the number increased to 50. The government of India has also selected about 100 design engineers to go to Taiwan to study abroad, charging in the fields of product design, manufacture and customer service.
Ajay Kumar, another official from the India electronics and information technology department, said the government's next wave of incentives will strive to meet the growing market demand for local smart phone capacity, and the ultimate goal is to stop relying on imports.
From any point of view, the development mode of India's manufacturing industry has a Chinese shadow. From the provision of tax relief to the use of demographic dividends, India hopes to pull these star companies to stimulate their industrial upgrading. A India official once said:
Apple wants to emulate its mode in China in India. They hope to get more financial incentives, and relevant government departments in India are discussing related decisions. Although the company is currently blocking the world's fastest growing market for smartphones in India, I can still make a lot of convincing reasons to convince them of India's manufacturing industry.
Apple: the potential of the India market is huge
For apple, along with the decline of the Greater China region's performance, India is also increasingly becoming the new growth market of the company.
In this week's apple earnings call conference, Cook has said, "in the current season, Apple's revenue in India market has reached a new high. In the long run, I have confidence in the performance of India market.
Tim-cook
(the picture comes from: The Quint)
Of course, Apple's concern for India market is not just about speaking. In August 2015, the apple plant Foxconn signed an agreement with the government of Maharashtra in India to invest in the plant. In May 2016, Cook visited India for the first time to seek an apple store in India; in December 2016, the iPhone manufacturer also announced a special match in India. Send the center.
For apple, the production of iPhone in India, in addition to using India's cheap labor, land and other advantages to reduce costs, can also attract more local consumers in India to buy iPhone.
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(the picture comes from: Tech2)
According to statistics, in 2016 the Apple Corp in India sold 2 million 500 thousand units iPhone. Although the current market rate is less than 2%, it is well worth the India market to look at the overall shipments of more than 750 million smartphones in 2020.
Although consumers in India are more inclined to buy low priced smart phones, with the continuous development of economy and the increase of per capita income, India has been printing.