Apple Supplier Jabil Begins Making AirPods Components In India

Apple’s key supplier Jabil Inc has reportedly started manufacturing AirPods components in India and meanwhile, began shipping AirPods’ enclosures or plastic bodies to China and Vietnam.

With this, India will now be producing iPhones as well as AirPods. Apple is shifting its manufacturing base to India owing to the US trade restrictions and COVID-related disruptions in China, sources told Bloomberg.  

As per the website, Jabil’s Indian unit is a 858,000 sq ft manufacturing facility based in Pune. It employs more than 2,500 workers in the country.

The development comes almost two weeks after 14 Chinese Apple suppliers received initial approval from the Centre to establish assembly plants in India. 

AirPods assembler Luxshare Precision Industry, lens manufacturer Sunny Optical Technology Group, Han’s Laser Technology Industry Group and Shenzhen YUTO Packaging Technology are a few of them. 

Apple, which also manufactures true wireless stereo (TWS) devices, captured 31% of the global TWS market. In Q3 2022, it shipped 23.8 Mn TWS units in aggregate, as per research firm Canalys.

Earlier this month, Union Minister Piyush Goyal shared that Apple plans to increase its production to 25% from the current 5-7% in India. 

“They (Apple) are already at about 5-7% of their manufacturing in India. If I am not mistaken, they are targeting to go up to 25% of their manufacturing. They launched the most recent models from India, manufactured in India,” Goyal added.

This is not all. Further, the US-based tech colossal has accelerated plans of setting up retail outlets and flagship stores in India. Reportedly, Apple would launch one store in Mumbai and one in Delhi in a few weeks. 

Apple also announced 12 job roles in India. Advertised roles include technical specialist, business expert, senior manager, store leader and ‘genius’ among others.

In December 2022, India exported more than INR 10K Cr smartphones. Of this, Apple exported $1 Bn smartphones from India. In the previous month (November), it also surpassed smartphone manufacturer Samsung, in exporting mobile phones from the country.

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