Mehul Reuben DasJan 11, 2023 09:14:13 IST
Apple has been increasingly distancing itself from China and has been trying to move its production facilities away from the country and into India. Although Apple develops the production manuals and SOPs for most of its devices in China, for the iPhone 15, Apple will be developing the SOPs and production manuals in both, India as well as China. The Cupertino-based tech giant wants the iPhone 15 series to be developed as much in India, as it will be developed in China.
Normally, Apple starts manufacturing its devices in India 6-9 months after it starts in China. Apple wants to reduce the gap between the two countries and may start manufacturing the iPhone 15 series simultaneously in India and China. Image Credit: Pexels
To that effect, Foxconn has begun the initial testing phase of the iPhone 15’s manufacturing process. The formal title for this stage is New Production Introduction or NPI. Apple has begun the New Product Introduction process for the iPhone 15 series in China. The main goal of the NPI process is that once the design is finalized, Apple can figure out how the production process will go in the first quarter of this year. Once it is done with China, Apple expects to carry out the same exercise in India as well.
This basically means that Apple will be testing the production capabilities of the iPhone 15 in both, India and China, almost simultaneously. Normally, Apple’s Indian factories start producing a device, an iPhone, for example, at least 6-9 months after Chinese factories start producing it. For the iPhone 15, this gap is expected to come down significantly.
India has been a key component of Apple’s expansion strategy as it seeks to expand outside of China. According to the source, Apple wants to reduce the time difference between Chinese and Indian production plans. Currently, the iPhone is manufactured between six and nine months before India. This year, the gap is expected to shrink as Apple begins collaborating with regional stakeholders to procure supplies.
If everything goes as per Apple’s plans, Apple intends to relocate at least 5 per cent of the production of iPhone components to India.
There is a very good chance that Apple’s Indian facilities start manufacturing the iPhone 15 series much closer to launch than it did with the iPhone 14 series.
