Speaking to news agency IANS, a spokesperson from Apple said, “We are proud to be producing iPhone 7 in Bengaluru for our local customers furthering our long-term commitment in India.” Wistron started assembling iPhone 7 last month in India. We should add here that Wistron announced its plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore in the Narasupra industrial sector in Karnataka’s Kolar district last year. Initially, it was only assembling low-end iPhone SE in India and then later, it expanded its operations and started assembling iPhone 6S too.
According to Gujuran A, the head of Wistron India, the company will be setting up a unit to make iPhones in India in 43 acres of land that will be allotted to it. It is said that the unit will have an employment potential of over 10,000 people. The facility by Wistron will also manufacture a wider range of Apple’s devices. The Cupertino-based technology company is slowly and steadily implementing its plans to make deeper inroads in India, which happens to be a very important market for Apple since there are over 450 million smartphones users here. Starting the assembly of iPhone 7 in India is just a step further in achieving its plans for Apple. Speaking on the matter, Tarun Pathak, Associate Director of Hong-Kong based Counterpoint Research said that the Indian electronics market is growing very fast and has a significant advantage over some of the countries it is competing with. Speaking to the news agency, he said, “I think to start with, it makes sense for Apple to localise assembling of models that have the potential to scale up and then slowly expands it to the entire portfolio.” It is worth mentioning that the iPhone 7’s 32GB variant costs Rs 39,900, and the 128GB model costs Rs 49,900. In India, the price is one among the key factors for users when they are looking for a new smartphone to buy. To begin assembling more handsets in India, Apple is also seeking tax relief and some other incentives. We should also add that Apple has started reducing the price of the iPhone in China and may do the same in India, where a number of people still consider most iPhones to be expensive.
