The “i” in iPhone now stands for “India”

In 2021, Apple made an estimated 1% of the world’s iPhones in India. According to a Bloomberg report published yesterday, that number is now up to almost 7%.

🔼 Driving the increase: To put it bluntly, Apple wants to decrease its dependence on China, which currently accounts for the creation of over 95% of Apple’s iPhones, AirPods, Macs, and iPads. With geopolitical tensions between the West and China on the rise, particularly around Taiwan, Apple has some concerns about what might happen to its supply chain.

• The biggest company in the world got a taste of this problem when, in late 2022 right before the holiday season, Apple had to delay some of its iPhone 14 shipments by several weeks following a string of Covid-related shutdowns in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, aka “iPhone City.”
• These delays contributed to Apple reporting its second Q4 revenue loss since 2007, when the iPhone was first released.

👀 Looking ahead… Apple’s most aggressive timeline has it moving up to 25% of iPhone production to India by 2025. And the tech giant’s move to India isn’t just about the creation of the iPhone – it wants to sell its smartphones there too. Apple will open India’s first two Apple stores in Mumbai and Delhi next week.