Apple to manufacture new iPhone 14 in India

Move towards production in India and Vietnam signals shift away from assembly in China

The first customers through the doors of Apple's flagship Dubai Mall store get their hands on the new iPhone 14. All photos by Antonie Robertson / The National

IT worker Abdul Rafeeque with the new model.

The new iPhone has had strong reviews for its display, processing power and camera - though some critics say Apple has not given users enough new features to make it worth the upgrade from a 13 model.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max is the largest phone Apple has released, and is slightly heavier and thicker than the iPhone 13.

All of Apple's iPhone 14 stock in this store was reserved or sold within 45 minutes.

Many shoppers arrived before the mall even opened.

Some customers took the morning off work to queue early on Friday.

An Apple shop worker shows off the new model.

Some customers bought several for family and friends, spending tens of thousands of dirhams.

The launch of the iPhone 14 at the Apple Store in Dubai Mall.

The new iPhone 14 on display at the Apple Store in Dubai Mall.

Apple will make its iPhone 14 in India, the company said on Monday, as manufacturers shift production from China amid geopolitical tension and pandemic restrictions that have disrupted supply chains for many industries.

“The new iPhone 14 line-up introduces groundbreaking new technologies and important safety capabilities. We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” Apple said in a statement.

The company unveiled its latest line-up of iPhones earlier this month. They will have improved cameras, faster processors and longer-lasting batteries at the same prices as last year’s models.

India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China but iPhone sales have struggled to capture a large share of the market against cheaper smartphones from competitors.

The announcement from the California-based company dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for local manufacturing, which has been a key goal for his government ever since he took office in 2014.

The tech company has bet big on India, where it first began manufacturing its iPhone SE in 2017 and has since continued to assemble a number of iPhone models there. Apple opened its online store for India two years ago, but the pandemic has delayed plans for a flagship store in the country, local media reported.

The latest model will be shipped out by Foxconn, a major iPhone assembler, whose facilities are on the outskirts of Chennai, a city in southern India.

Apple is likely to shift about 5 per cent of its iPhone 14 production to India from later this year, raising it to 25 per cent by 2025, a JP Morgan report quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Supply chain risks such as the stringent Covid-19 lockdowns in China are likely the trigger for such relocation efforts that will continue over the next two or three years, the report said.

iPhone 14 launch — in photos

“Apple has been trying to diversify its supply chain for a while, but these efforts have grown in the last two years over trade sanctions between the US and China,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, an analyst at Canalys.

Last year, the tech company manufactured about seven million iPhones in India. This news is likely to significantly increase India-made Apple smartphones, he added.

Most of Apple’s smartphones and tablets are assembled by contractors with factories in China, but the company started to look at the possibility of moving some production to South-East Asia or other places after repeated shutdowns to fight Covid-19 disrupted the global flow of products.

Apple has not released details, but news reports say the company has planned to set up assembly of tablet computers and wireless earphones in Vietnam.

Other companies are keeping or expanding manufacturing in China to serve the domestic market while shifting export-orientated work to other countries due to rising wages and other costs, as well as the difficulty for foreign executives to visit China due to anti-Covid travel restrictions.