Apple will soon make, or rather assemble, the iPhone SE 2020 in India, according to a new report by The Information. Apple’s newest iPhone, which is also its most affordable new iPhone, will reportedly be made in India by Cupertino’s manufacturing partner Wistron. Wistron already makes the iPhone 7 in India in Bengaluru.
Production of “made in India” iPhone SE 2020 may start as early as July as the contract manufacturer is said to be now awaiting for component supplies from China, though the current India-China standoff may act as spoiler and delay the proceedings. The iPhone SE 2020 models that Apple currently sells in India are all made in China.
The iPhone SE 2020 starts at Rs 42,500 for the base variant with 64GB storage going all the way to Rs 58,300 for the top-end model with 256GB storage. The 128GB version of the iPhone SE 2020 costs Rs 47,800. Clearly, Apple’s low-cost iPhone is not exactly very low-cost in India, but down the line, local assembly could change things with factors like import duty being waved off coming into play. Only time will tell if it will impact pricing, bringing them down somewhat, though.
The original iPhone SE was also made in India before it was phased out recently. Foxconn makes the iPhone XR in Chennai. There were rumours that Apple could start making the iPhone 11 in India, but apparently those plans were put on hold due to a lack of supply chain and labour skilled enough to “produce the high-end, organic light-emitting diode models.”
Both Foxconn and Wistron have apparently boosted local production after the Government of India launched the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme recently to encourage domestic manufacturing (and assembly) of smartphones in an attempt to become self-reliant in the days to come.
