Apple Inc. will start manufacturing its latest iPhone 14 in India, as it seeks to shift away from China amid economic and political tensions with the United States.
The company unveiled its latest smartphone at its headquarters in Cupertino, California earlier this month. Apple claims that the product features a longer-lasting battery, a more powerful camera, and a faster processor.
Apple is excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India, according to a statement on Monday by the Associated Press.
Apple intends to sell the phones locally to India's customer base, but also export them globally. In the next few days, the sale of locally produced iPhone 14 s will begin in India.
AP notes that the country is the second smartphone market in the world, but Apple has failed to expand its business in recent years due to cheaper locally produced competitors.
According to JP Morgan analysts, Apple will move about 5% of its iPhone 14 production to India by late 2022. Experts believe that Apple could make one of four iPhones in India by the year 2025 if the company continues to expand its presence in India.
The manufacturing process is overseen by Foxconn, Apple's iPhone assembler, at the Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai. Apple has only older models in India since 2017 and not the latest products that are close to launch.
Analysts believe that Apple will continue to diversify its product manufacturing outside of China over the next few years. A number of issues, such as Covid 19 lockdown restrictions and geopolitical tensions with the US over Taiwan, have pushed the technology firm to start this relocation effort.