Apple starts manufacturing iPhone 14 in India in a shift away from China

Apple has started assembling the iPhone 14 models in India, it said Monday, locally producing the current lineup for the first time in the same calendar year in the world’s second largest smartphone market as analysts predict a greater shift in the American giant’s future manufacturing.

The company’s global partner Foxconn is manufacturing the device in the Sriperumbudur facility near Chennai. The locally produced iPhone units will go on sale in the country later this year. “We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India,” an Apple spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.

Apple began locally assembling smartphones in India in 2017, but until this year, the iPhone-maker has used the manufacturing facilities in India to assemble older generation handsets. Apple launched the iPhone 14 models earlier this month.

Analysts estimate that Apple will turn India into a global iPhone manufacturing hub by 2025 as it slowly cuts its reliance on China, where it has been producing the vast majority of its devices for over a decade. In a report earlier this month, JP Morgan analysts said Apple will move 5% of global iPhone 14 production to India by late 2022 and expand its manufacturing capacity in the country to produce 25% of all iPhones by 2025.

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