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Apple is Reportedly Making More of Its New iPhones in India Instead of China (theverge.com) 33

Posted by msmash from the strategy-shift dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple is manufacturing more of its iPhone 17 phones for the US in India instead of in China, and for the first time, the full lineup of new models will ship from India at launch, according to Bloomberg. The company is also working on a successor to the iPhone 16E that it plans to make in India, Bloomberg says.

Apple has increasingly been moving iPhone production to India to reduce its dependence on manufacturing in China. The company already expects to pay $1.1 billion in tariffs for the current quarter, but Bloomberg reports that currently, Apple's exports of iPhones to the US from India are exempted from tariffs. That's despite the Trump administration's 50 percent tariff on many imports from India, and while analyst Patrick Moorhead says the move "does dodge some tariffs," he noted that iPhone subassemblies are still mostly produced in China then shipped to India for final assembly.
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Apple is Reportedly Making More of Its New iPhones in India Instead of China More

Apple is Reportedly Making More of Its New iPhones in India Instead of China

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  • They've been made in China for a long time.

    Making them in India is relatively new.

    Everything else being equal (and I'm not claiming that they are), I'd prefer a China made phone, to reduce the chances of getting a phone with manufacturing defects.

    Fortunately, I'm not in the market for a phone this year.

    • I'd prefer a China made phone, to reduce the chances of getting a phone with manufacturing defects

      That’s funny ; you know, when Apple first moved iPhone production to China, people were saying the exact same thing about China.

      • I'm sure.

        Well, no new ideas under the sun and all that.

      • Wow, you just made that up.

        • Sure he did. We all know China was amazing and produced perfect high quality products throughout all of history, and no one has ever considered China to be a company producing nothing but low quality shit, and criticise companies who move production there. /s

          What basis do you have for that comment to be made up? It seems like a truly obvious comment. Your comment on the other hand would be the same as if the OP said "the sky is blue" and you were saying they made that up too.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            The very first iPhone was made in China. In fact, the very first iPod was made in China. More to the point the iPod was the first Apple product line to be made in mainland China, though you could argue that the first Apple product made in China was the Newton Messagepad, depending on how you resolve the geopolitical question of whether Taiwan should or should not be considered part of China. :-)

      • 50 years ago, people were saying the exact same thing about Japan.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Thatâ(TM)s funny ; you know, when Apple first moved iPhone production to China, people were saying the exact same thing about China.

        iPhones have always been made in China since the original iPhone in 2007. And Apple has consistently been making stuff in China at that point. Other manufacturers have been making phones in China for years before Apple, at that.

        Quite famously, Apple bought all the air cargo space from China to the USA in 1996 or 1997 when they introduced the original Bondi Blue iMac. It ba

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Thatâ(TM)s funny ; you know, when Apple first moved iPhone production to China, people were saying the exact same thing about China.

          iPhones have always been made in China since the original iPhone in 2007. And Apple has consistently been making stuff in China at that point. Other manufacturers have been making phones in China for years before Apple, at that.

          Quite famously, Apple bought all the air cargo space from China to the USA in 1996 or 1997 when they introduced the original Bondi Blue iMac. It basically forced all the other manufacturers to not have product on the shelves for the holidays.

          I could be wrong, but I think the first device like to be actually assembled in China was the iPod in 2001. Bondi Blue might have had parts made in China, but I'm pretty sure it was assembled in the U.S.

          Also, it was announced in August of 1998. There's no reason that buying all the air cargo space for a product released in August would affect things happening around the holidays. By a month or so after release, they tend to use boat shipping unless they are direct shipping them from the factory to the co

    • According to Bloomberg [bloomberg.com] (paywalled link, sorry), Apple has been building iPhones in India since the iPhone SE in 2017. I don't particularly recall hearing of any major QC issues with that phone.

      Most of the major components are still sourced from the usual places (yes, I used ChatGPT for the following list and it looks to be more-or-less accurate):

      China - A huge portion of the supply chain is still centered there. Many display assemblies, batteries, connectors, glass, and the lion’s share of final suba

    • The chances of having a manufacturing defect has nothing to do with location of something being made and everything to do with QA/QC oversight over said location. There's no reason to prefer a phone from one company from one country over another, especially considering you're ultimately covered by the same American company if something goes wrong.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        The chances of having a manufacturing defect has nothing to do with location of something being made and everything to do with QA/QC oversight over said location. There's no reason to prefer a phone from one company from one country over another, especially considering you're ultimately covered by the same American company if something goes wrong.

        This. Apple is known for doing drop-in inspections to keep factories on their toes QA-wise, not to mention to ensure that working conditions don't degrade. And the same company (Foxconn) runs manufacturing in both countries, so there's really no reason to expect significantly different quality.

    • I'd prefer a China made phone, to reduce the chances of getting a phone with manufacturing defects

      Do you inspect the plants in China or something to be so certain their process is not reproduceable in other countries?

      Fortunately, I'm not in the market for a phone this year.

      You do realize the phones being sold this year are still mainly made in China, and over time more will be made in India, thus you have that ass-backwards and should be wanting to purchase an iPhone ASAP.

  • Is going to be chicken vindaloo?

  • The key phrase is subassemblies are still produced in China.
    So Cameras, Screens, Touch Screen, Speakers, Glass, maybe even the PCBs themselves... all still made in China.
    India is just a screw bits together country to get around tariffs.

  • Anything at all to avoid hiring an American.

  • Consider the latest anti-Russia action, the 25% additional tariff on Indian goods (https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-addresses-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-the-russian-federation/). Of course, what gets slapped on quickly could come off quickly IF India weans itself from cheap Russian Oil. But that’s a pretty big IF.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Weans itself off Russian oil might take a while. I don't know how much they use for their economy but they've been buying Russian oil cheap and then reselling it on the international market for nice tidy profit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )
      The move to India was never about tariffs. They'll be gone as soon as things turn against TACO.

      This move is about costs, things are getting more expensive in China so wages are going up, people are becoming richer and having more employment options... basically people are getting rights and the steady flow of near slave class workers is drying up. So they're moving to India where oligarchs are gleefully telling Indians that they need to work 80+ hours a week to make them even richer. Unlike the Indian go
      • The China-India pairing can go forward in a lot of directions in modern manufacturing, Canada-US or China-US. People complain a lot about either relationship type, but for the manufacture unless the liberals go off their rocker is as frictionless as providence to providence or state to state, and China by remaining a bit ignorant can avoid some high end investments that are not genialized, and will avoid anything that is not vertically integrated in the same prefecture.

        If China and India have a probl

  • Any diversification of production for a company like Apple is a good thing, for a plethora of reasons. It's hard to think of a counter argument by anyone (that isn't Chinese) that the phones should be exclusively made in that country, for sale in the US and abroad.

  • Much discussion about the 300 dollars of assembly effort and no discussion of the 30 dollars per month of kickbacks apple gets for delivering Apps and Ads to a particular class of snobby consumer. As a apple stock holder, Good for China and India to fight over the short game scraps, how can I contribute to the please the west game? As a a Android troll, where is the spicy popcorn salt?

  • The components are all made in China.

    The change is to ship those components to India for assembly, instead of assembling them in China.

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