iPhones Worth $1 Bn Shipped Out Of India In First Five Months Of FY23: Report

In what appears to be a shot in the arm for the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme, tech giant Apple reportedly exported iPhones worth $1 Bn from the country in the first five months of the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).

Sources told Bloomberg that the country was poised to reach $2.5 Bn in total outbound shipments, at the current rate, in FY23. People privy to the development also said that the projected numbers are nearly double compared to FY22, when Apple exported $1.3 Bn worth of India-made iPhones across the globe. 

Exported mainly to Europe and the Middle East, a large chunk of the shipments comprised iPhone 11, 12 and 13. The Cupertino-based smartphone giant is also planning to begin exports of its newly launched iPhone 14 soon, according to sources.

This comes barely a week after Apple began manufacturing its latest iPhone 14 in India out of the Foxconn’s Sriperumbudur facility on the outskirts of Chennai.

According to the Bloomberg report, India is also making plans to shore up financial incentives for tablet and laptop makers. With this, the government is looking to attract players like Apple to set up MacBook and iPad manufacturing lines in the country.

India: The Alternative Base?

This comes at a time when Apple has ramped up focus on its India operations and has scaled up its production capabilities in the country exponentially. 

Last month, financial services firm Moody’s said that manufacturing of iPhone 14 in India within weeks of its global launch demonstrated the tech giant’s maturing production capabilities in the country.

A separate report by banking major JP Morgan said that made in India iPhones may account for a fourth of its total iPhone production by 2025.

This comes at a time when Apple is looking at India as an alternative base for manufacturing smartphones, apart from Vietnam. The renewed interest in the country has largely been led by the government’s production linked incentive (PLI), the US-China hostilities, and Covid-19 restrictions in China.

China, however, continues to be the biggest manufacturer for iPhone owing to its long-term association with Apple and a streamlined supply chain that the tech giant has built in China over the years.

According to a report, India made 3 Mn iPhones last year, while China manufactured 230 Mn Apple smartphones during the same period. The same report estimates it would take close to eight years to move just 10% of Apple’s production capacity out of China.

Apple’s production in India is led by three contract manufacturers – Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron – who manufacture various models of iPhones at their respective factories based in southern India. 

According to CyberMedia Research (CMR), Apple shipped more than 1.2 Mn ‘Made in India’ iPhones in the second quarter of 2022, recording a 94% year-on-year (YoY) growth.