The Apple company will start producing the iPhone SE in India this year, this being the first model in the iPhone series that the American company will manufacture in the country. A factory will be built in Karnataka by the Wistron companies, and iPhone SE terminals will be assembled there, which will be sold on the local market by those from Apple without import taxes.
Wistron will invest several billion dollars in the factory it intends to build in India, and there would be produced up to 400.000 iPhone terminals in 2017. Apple sold 2.5 million iPhone terminals in India during 2015, but the figure is small because the prices for Apple terminals are very high in the country.
Apple wants to avoid the import tax imposed on electronic products manufactured in other countries, and this factory will help it sell iPhone terminals at a lower price. By selling cheaper iPhone terminals, the Apple company can convince more Indians to buy its products, and sales could increase exponentially in the country during 2016.
Separately from Wistron, it is also rumored that Foxconn is going to build a factory in the country to produce iPhone terminals for the Apple company. If both partners will manufacture products there, they will probably only cover local needs, and the units produced will not be exported to other markets where Apple is present, at least at the beginning.
"It is Apple's first such venture in India... The demands they have made are for the larger plans of the company to really scale up manufacturing in India. The duty concessions are not connected to the plant. While the immediate advantage would be the tax benefit of 10-12% if it is manufactured (here) compared with imports, it will also give Apple an edge in India, which is the fastest-growing large market, as opposed to slow growth in China."
