While Apple India’s story is not quite glorious, it has not yet reached the high, which China has reached its original similar terms, as journalist Patrick McGe explained in her latest book.
MacGi was the main reporter of Apple Financial Times from 2019 to 2023, whose latest book “Apple in China”, published by Simon & Schuster, reports how the company became one of the largest in the world and how it linked its condition with Beijing.
McGe said Apple from China was caused by the closure of the Shanghai 2022, which turned out to be the main catalyst for change, McGe said. The journalist quotes the former executive director, who said: “China has moved from a reliable supplier to a completely unreliable supplier.”
Meanwhile, Tim Cook said in October 2018 that India was prepared for the “Chinese trajectory”, but in five years, when the impetus was still unchanged. Cupertino was cautious, and New Delhi was not quite ready to be as welcoming as Beijing a decade earlier. The Indian government wanted foreign companies to crumble 30 percent of the components locally.
“When the rules were relaxed in 2017, Apple’s suppliers started collecting some iPhones in India – with the Taiwanese partner Wistron is a step that allowed Apple to avoid hefty tariffs. This made the iPhone more affordable for the middle class growth,” McGi said in his book. He noted that Apple’s online store opened only in 2020, and the first physical shop was three years later – which was 15 years after the first store opened in China.
India has started creating iPhone SE models and moved to the creation of flagship models. Until 2023, there was no backlog between China and India’s distributions, and iPhones made in India were available on the same day. Until 2024, India was making Profi Model.
However, according to McGe, India’s growth rates were not comparable to Chinese even ten years later. “From 2016 to 2023, the production of iPhone in India has grown from scratch to about 15 million units, which is 7 percent of global supplies. China, between 2006 and 2013, increased production from zero to 153 million units. So, at best, India accepts orders for the iPhone of China for ten years earlier,” Macgi said.
However, here’s a big problem – Apple operations in India – all FATP, which means final assembly, test and packaging. This is a time -consuming process. The components arrive from China, collected by Taiwanese companies Wistron and Foxconn.
McGe quotes design engineer, which jokingly said that the iPhones Made-In-Vygona “Collected in China, disassembled there, and then sent to China for assembly.”
The journalist said Apple intends to become completely capable of becoming in every way, but it will also take another 5-10 years. India’s operations are still in the early stages of power.
McGe quotes former senior engineer Apple, who said the development rate was not fast. According to him, in China and India, depending on the same supply chain, it adds more complications than stability, he said.
Low work costs in India are offset by additional logistics shipment from China.
