Bloomberg: Apple will produce iPhone 14 in India

Multiple sources familiar with Bloomberg said that Apple has been working with suppliers to increase production in India and shorten iPhone production times compared to previous launches. A new iPhone version usually takes 6 to 9 months to produce.

According to Bloomberg, Apple has long manufactured most of its iPhones in China. The company is looking for alternatives, amid strained US-China relations.

The prolonged COVID-19 epidemic, which has stalled economic activities in China, is also a reason for Apple to find new locations.

Previously, on August 17, Nikkei Asia newspaper reported that Apple was in talks to bring Apple Watch products and Macbook laptops for the first time to be manufactured in Vietnam.

According to this newspaper, Apple’s two leading manufacturing partners, Luxshare and Foxconn, have begun trial production of Apple Watch at the factory located in the North.

TF International Securities Group analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts Apple will ship the iPhone 14 from both countries at roughly the same time. This will be a major milestone in Apple’s efforts to diversify its supply chain and build redundancy.

Bloomberg’s sources say that Foxconn, the main iPhone manufacturer, has been studying the process of shipping components from China and assembling the iPhone 14 device at a factory on the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Chennai.

The same sources also said that Apple and Foxconn ultimately agreeing to launch iPhone 14 production in India and China at the same time is not realistic, although this is still a long-term goal.

The first iPhone 14 production in India is likely to be completed by the end of October or November this year, after the first production in China in September.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment, while Foxconn has not yet responded.

Apple’s partners began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017, the beginning of a multi-year effort to build production capacity in the country.

According to Bloomberg, one challenge in bringing iPhone production to India is security.

Apple has gone to great lengths to keep details about new products secret. Imposing similar strict control measures in China in a second country is considered very difficult.