Apple is giving India a far bigger role in its global supply chain this year. Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 17 series next month, the company has reportedly started producing all four models in India, including the Pro variants that were previously manufactured only in China, Bloomberg reported. This is the first time India will be part of Apple’s initial rollout at such a scale.
The change is not just symbolic. It shows how aggressively Apple is trying to reduce its dependence on China, especially for devices bound for the US and other key markets. According to people familiar with the plan, the company is currently producing the iPhone 17 across five factories in India. Two of them have only recently started operations, Tata Group’s facility at Hosur in Tamil Nadu and Foxconn’s large plant near Bengaluru airport.
Tata’s role, in particular, is expanding quickly. Within the next two years, plants run by the conglomerate could be responsible for nearly half of India’s iPhone output. That is a big leap for a company that only entered iPhone assembly after acquiring Wistron’s Karnataka unit in 2023 and taking a majority stake in Pegatron’s factory near Chennai.
The scale of Apple’s change in strategy can be seen in the numbers. Between April and July this year, India exported $7.5 billion worth of iPhones at factory gate prices. In the entire previous financial year, exports stood at $17 billion.
On the product side, the iPhone 17 series itself is expected to bring noticeable changes. Reports suggest that Apple is preparing a slimmer model that will be positioned as the face of its marketing campaign, while the Pro versions will get their most substantial redesign in years. Camera upgrades, improved video recording and better zoom capabilities are said to be part of the package.
Apple’s India roadmap, however, stretches beyond this year’s launch. The company is working on a new iPhone 17e, likely to debut early next year as the follow-up to the iPhone 16e. Discussions have also begun around production plans for the iPhone 18, with early preparations expected to start in the coming weeks.
The expansion in India is partly a response to the unpredictable global trade environment. Apple has been navigating tariff pressures in the US, with the company recently warning of a $1.1 billion hit in the current quarter. While iPhones have so far been spared from broad tariff hikes, Apple wants to be better prepared by diversifying its production base.
China, meanwhile, has been trying to hold on to its manufacturing dominance. Officials have reportedly discouraged technology transfers to India and Southeast Asia in a bid to slow the change. Foxconn even recalled hundreds of Chinese technicians from its Indian plants earlier this year, forcing Apple to fly in engineers from Taiwan and Japan at a higher cost. Still, production timelines remain on track, people aware of the matter said.
– Ends