India: Apple Starts iPhone 11 Manufacturing In Chennai’s Foxconn Plant

Apple has officially begun manufacturing the Apple iPhone 11 flagship at the Foxconn plant near Chennai, India. This is the first time when a flagship model has been locally set up in India. Earlier, iPhones have been made in the country. The latest development will help Apple by reducing the import costs and therefore the final cost of the phones.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal revealed the news on Twitter on Friday. He tweeted that, "This is a significant boost to make in India! Apple has started to produce iPhone 11 in India, taking the top-of-the-line device to the country for the first time."

Apple is also sketching out plans to develop the iPhone SE 2020 in India at its Wistron plant near Bangalore. Apple started the domestic production of the Apple iPhone SE 2016 in Bangalore in 2017.

The local assembly of Apple iPhones will help customers in several ways. The Made in India products would not cost as much as the imported models, because the firm will not have to pay a 20 % tax on the import of smartphones from its global manufacturing facilities.

The manufacturing of the iPhone 11 will take place in phases and one of Apple 's largest suppliers, Foxconn will spend $1 billion to expand its plant in Tamil Nadu over the next few years. There are three major suppliers for its iphone models - Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron iPhone models. And not just Foxconn, Pegatron, too, has plans to invest heavily in India.

Liu Young-Way, Chairman of Foxconn, has said during the company’s Annual General Meeting held in June 2020, "We 're pushing ahead with the next steps there (in India), and maybe in a few month's time, we'll be able to reveal the next steps and report back to everyone. We are going to make another project there."

Apple's iPhone 11 is one of India's most successful Apple smartphones. Cheapest in the iPhone 11 series, the price of Apple iPhone 11 is Rs 68,300 in India for the 64 GB version, while the 128 GB version is priced at Rs 73,600 and the iPhone 11 256 GB is priced Rs 84,100 in India.