Apple's top-of-the-line iPhones made in India will enter stores next month: source



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MUMBAI (Reuters) – Apple Inc.'s high-end iPhones, assembled in India by the local Foxconn unit, are expected to arrive in Indian stores next month, a source said, helping the tech giant to lower prices on the world's second largest smartphone market.

PHOTO FILE: Workers adjust the hoarding of the new iPhone XS in Ahmedabad, India on October 4, 2018. REUTERS / Amit Dave / File Photo

Some approvals are pending, but iPhone XR and XS devices manufactured in India are expected to hit the market in August, the source said, asking not to be named, as the case is not public.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Foxconn said not to comment on customers or their products.

The local assembly expansion will allow Apple to save on the high taxes levied on the import of fully built peripherals, as well as to meet local procurement standards for the Opening of its own retail stores in India.

Apple devices are coveted by millions of Indians, but its high price has limited its market share to a mere one hundred (1%) in favor of rivals such as Chinese OnePlus.

Reuters had previously announced that the local unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, known as Foxconn, would begin this year to assemble the iPhone X family devices in the state of Tamil Nadu, in the south from India.

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, also assembles low-cost SE, 6S and 7 models in India through the local Wistron Corp unit in the Bengaluru Technology Center.

"Local production will give Apple the leeway to play with the margins of its distributors and indirectly reduce the price of its phones," said Rushabh Doshi, research director at Canalys, Technology Consulting.

COMMERCIAL WAR

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has sought to position South Asia's third largest economy as a hub for smartphone manufacturing, attracting global players with access to a market of more than one billion connections wireless and inexpensive labor.

This surge has met with some success as global smartphone giants, including Samsung and Oppo in China, have grown rapidly in India, and outsourcing manufacturers such as Foxconn have stepped up their domestic operations.

Beyond the satisfaction of local demand, companies such as Apple could also use India as an export hub to mitigate the effects of a deadly trade war between the United States and China, according to reports. technological analysts.

Apple has reduced its revenue forecast for the first fiscal quarter, due to slowing iPhone sales in China, where uncertainties surrounding US-China trade relations have hurt the economy. .

Some of the iPhone 6 and 7 assembled by Wistron are being exported from India to European markets, said Neil Shah of Counterpoint, Hong-King-based technology researcher.

Wistron's head in India declined to comment.

Reportage of Sankalp Phartiyal; Edited by Euan Rocha and Alexandra Hudson

Our standards:The principles of Thomson Reuters Trust.

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