Apple to sell India-made iPhones at launch for the first time

Apple will reportedly hit a major milestone regarding its global supply chain with the expected launch of the iPhone 15 later today. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple is set to make India-built iPhone 15 units available to purchase in India and “some other regions” on the first day of sales — arriving at the same time as the China-made ones for the first time.

While the vast majority of the global iPhone 15 stock will still come from China, this milestone highlights that Apple’s attempt to scale production in India is finally bearing fruit as it moves away from its reliance on Chinese-based manufacturing. Apple first started assembling existing generations of iPhones in India back in 2017.

Narrowing production gaps between its Chinese and Indian iPhone facilities — both primarily operated by Foxconn — is important for Apple. It needs a reliable manufacturing alternative to withstand geopolitical issues and local labor disputes like the factory protests that threatened the global supply of its iPhone cash cow last year. It also lets Apple avoid steep tariffs on the products it sells inside India — a huge untapped market for the company — by bringing it into compliance with the government’s Make in India law.

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And the timing couldn’t be better given a recent rise in Chinese nationalism that’s encouraging government organizations and consumers alike to drop iPhones in favor of homegrown brands like Huawei.