Apple Banned From Selling iPhone 16 in Indonesia

Indonesia has banned sales of Apple's iPhone 16, citing the tech giant's failure to meet local investment requirements, the country's Ministry of Industry said. The ministry said Apple's local unit has not fulfilled the mandatory 40% local content threshold for smartphones, making imported iPhone 16 units illegal for sale in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

About 9,000 iPhone 16 devices have entered Indonesia through passenger luggage since last month's launch. "These phones entered legally, but will be illegal if traded," the ministry said. Apple has invested 1.48 trillion rupiah ($108 million) of its 1.71 trillion rupiah commitment in Indonesia. The company operates four developer academies but no manufacturing facilities in the country, despite government pressure to expand its presence.

Every country it's own manufactering?

[Teun]

Should every country have the right to it's own manufacturing?
I know Indonesia is a large country but even though I don't like Apple's closed garden they do make hi tech equipment.
And I can't imagine they would subscribe to several countries like Indonesia demanding their own manufacturing, even the USofA doesn't easily get it.

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[Firethorn]

Right to own manufacturing, or right to demand local manufacturing?

Thinking on this it could be seen as similar to US demands, via tariff and subsidy, that EVs be made in country. Sort of, exceptions apply, I'm summarizing.

40% seems to be a pretty big number. Is it component count, by mass, value, volume, or what?
Components, cellphones have a case, display, battery, mainboard with connectors, and various chips.

They are all relatively tiny and very subject to centralized manufacturing being much more effic

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[dbialac]

It's about jobs. In theory, efficiency to a point increases profits. On the flip side, more jobs with higher pay increases customers. When Standard Oil was broken up, Rockerfeller encouraged people he knew to invest in the new companies as he knew it would cause a huge increase in sales because price fixing from a monopoly would be a thing of the past. This happened because more people could afford more gas and drive further.

As far as tariffs go, one need look at what happened when gasoline prices were over

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[saloomy]

Tariffs are different than outright bans.

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[Firethorn]

That's why I said similar, not identical.

We should apply this to everything

[MeNeXT]

Every country should apply this rule to every product and service... no exceptions. What could go wrong? /s

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[luvirini]

Well, that seems to be the world we are heading to. Although, not by country, but by trading block.

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[sconeu]

And we end up with "The Producers".

All manufacturers? The future?

[uffe_nordholm]

If this applies to all manufacturers of communications equipment, I can't see how Indonesia would avoid collapsing back to the stone age, communication wise. If this law applies to eg Samsung also (I see no reason to believe it doesn't) then also Samsung devices would be made illegal, unless Samsung can find some way of making 40% of the phone in Indonesia. Soon no modern communication devices would be legal, because no manufacturer can find a reasonable way to make 40% of the devices in Indonesia. So the

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[Teun]

Talking about other countries following this (40%) rule, once you hit 2.5 countries you've already reached a 100%.
Of course this would imply there would be no double manufacturing involved but we all know this would seriously increase the price for all countries involved.

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[Kitkoan]

It's 40% of smartphones sold locally, not globally. It just means you have to now have a manufacturing presence in the country to sell there that can support 40% of your local sales. (This doesn't make it a good thing though.)

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[angel'o'sphere]

You are silly.
40% of the devises sold in Indonesia, should be produced in Indonesia.
A no brainer, isn't it?

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[tiananmen tank man]

100% of Samsung smartphones sold in Indonesia are made/assembled in Indonesia. A google search for ' Samsung Indonesia factory' will confirm that.

Sailfish RISC-V Devices

[bill_mcgonigle]

The BRICS nations are closing in on alternate smartphone ecosystems.

They are not at Anglosphere levels yet but if you look at the slopes they are going to cross in a few years.

A system of collaboration and non-zero-sum competition would lift all boats.

But that's for Github, not nation states, apparently.

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[Anonymous Coward]

BRICS must have been the FoxNews scary acronym of the day

Laws like this are usually ill written

[angel'o'sphere]

Thailand makes it simple.
Put a 100%, 200% or 300% tariffs on imports.

Wait until the products/companies affected, set up their own factories.

Three or four Chinese EV manufactures are in the process of doing so, one factory just opened.

Produced here: no tariffs, obviously.

Would not work in Europe or USA, as the local costs are to high. But would work most likely for Indonesia.

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[tlhIngan]

Thailand makes it simple.
Put a 100%, 200% or 300% tariffs on imports.

Wait until the products/companies affected, set up their own factories.

Doesn't' work very well if the stuff you're selling is small.

Brazil has a 200% import tariff for foreign made things, and Apple passes it on to consumers.

It's actually expensive enough that if you want an Apple product, it's cheaper to fly to the US, buy it there, and then bring it back in your luggage.

And likewise, chances are if people want it enough, they're going to

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[angel'o'sphere]

Astonishing is, that Apple products have in Thailand more or less the same price as in the rest of the world.