After almost a year-long tussle with the Indian government, Apple has finally got a nod of approval fo setting up an iPhone manufacturing plant in India.
The Karnataka Government gave Apple the green signal for a manufacturing unit on Thursday, Feb 2, 2017.
Just as we’d predicted, this was the result of Apple’s meeting with the Indian government on January 25th.
Here are the key highlights of the decision:
- The Karnataka government made the announcement through a public release. No word from Apple yet.
- The release said that this manufacturing unit “will foster cutting edge technology ecosystem and supply chain development in the state, which are critical for India to compete globally.”
- The plant will be set up in the industrial hub at Peenya, near Bengaluru.
- No timeline has been set yet, but production likely to begin by June.
- India is only the third country, after US and China, to host an Apple device manufacturing unit.
- The government is also in talks regarding a host of other services with Apple. Hopefully, more good news will follow.
What does it mean to us?
This is definitely a huge step forward for Apple.
An iPhone manufacturing plant in India means that we will finally have cheaper iPhones. It also means that we might start getting the new iPhones at the same time as the US.
There is a good chance that Apple will be able to make phones customised for the Indian audience — as and when the demand dictates. From an economic point of view, we know we have the numbers to make customisation financially viable. So it will interesting to see what the future holds.
For now, one thing is for sure — We’ll get to see a “Made in India” iPhone before this year ends.
What a great start to an otherwise depressing year!
Source: ToI
