According to government officials, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn is planning to open operations including 10-12 factories and data centers by 2020 in India for the first time. Foxconn producing iPhones and iPads in India could result in lower prices on Apple’s hardware in the country where Apple’s hardware is sold at a price higher than many of its competitors.
The move is also said to be an effort by Foxconn to chase low wage costs as wages in China where it currently operates rise, Reuters reports. Foxconn’s intent to open shop in India maybe also be to achieve lower operation costs that make it more competitive against its rivals like Quanta that compete for Apple’s business in producing hardware.
Neither Foxconn nor Apple have officially commented on the electronics maker’s future in India, but local officials have said that Foxconn is sending scouts to find locations to set up shop. The officials added that Foxconn plans to use the facilities to produce electronics sold globally, not just in India.
For Apple CEO Tim Cook, India has remained a target of growth due to the population and number of mobile subscribers in the country. iPhone sales have risen in the country even with current pricing being higher than some of Apple’s competition. In the last quarter of 2014, Apple sold a half million phones in India compared to the million it sold across the entire year prior.
Apple has also been said to be supporting a number of resellers in the country as it doesn’t have an official retail presence of its own currently. The company has used financing plans to make its premium products more affordable in India in addition to offering lower tiered storage options and cheaper hardware for customers.
We also learned this morning that Apple Music, the company’s upcoming subscription music service, may be priced around $2-$3 in India compared to the $10-$15 price in the United States. This would put it in line with Rdio and others in the country.
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Surprised they haven’t converted to 100% robotic workforce/automated manufacturing yet.
Kind of a shame that they’re chasing the cheapest slave labor they can find worldwide. Rome is burning?
India is hardly the cheapest country for manufacturing. I think their expertise is what is enticing to Apple. And Foxconn for that matter.
No Sir, they aren’t chasing the cheapest labour, or slave labour.
India is much more expensive than many other countries… like the neighbor Thailand.
And the Chinese employees have astronomical salaries for Chinese standards, and I mean “astronomic”.
You don’t understand how politics work, do you?
Apple is manufacturing in China, so the Chinese Gov. won’t want to block Apple for no good reason in China.
They are doing the same in Brazil, and now in India.
They are opening data-centers in China, in the European Union, too…
They are opening offices around the world.
Apple is not an American company, it’s a multinational company with offices in California. If they want to keep being a multinational company, they have to do what all multinational companies have to do, and do something for the local population too…
Thais have a higher standard of living than the avg Indian, a huge % dont have access to water or toilets in India, not so in Thailand. The higher costs in India are down to corruption and red tape both of which Indians excel at, if cheap was what they wanted, Vietnam and Bangladesh would have been better choice. As for the trained workforce, in recent years it has been shown time and time again, the quals are substandard or fake in India. So buyer beware!
Just as long as they don’t put Apple Customer Service there
Well, Foxconn opened a factory on Brazil too, they’re producing iPhones here, even so we have to most expensive iPhone in the world. It doesn’t make so much sense.
Maybe Apple/Foxconn’s idea behind that is to increase their profit one and only.
The Brazillian factory is purely to avoid import duty
The Brazilian factory only produces iPad’s for the education market…
Anything that begins a break-away from China is good with me.