Foxconn plans to assemble iPhone X models in its Indian factory early next year. The rise of India as an industrial base will allow Apple to mitigate the effects of the Sino-US trade war.
While China remains the first global smartphone manufacturing workshop of the California giant, under the leadership of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics subcontractor will now manufacture in the Indian subcontinent the most expensive models of the apple brand, such as those of the iPhone X family.
According to Reuters , Foxconn will be using its Sriperumbudur plant in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. The Taiwanese subcontractor, who is already making smartphones for Xiaomi, will invest 25 billion Indian rupees (360 million dollars) to expand its Indian industrial site, said Tamil Nadu Industry Minister MC Sampath. The production of high-end iPhone should start in 2019.
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Until now, only the iPhone SE and 6S, the most affordable devices in terms of price of the California giant, were assembled since 2018 in India by the local subsidiary of another subcontractor, the Taiwanese Wistron, in its factory near Bangalore.
For Apple, the rise of India as an industrial base also allows it to mitigate the effects of the current trade war between China and the United States. Apple had marketed the iPhone X in 2017, which it has enriched with the global launch in the fall of 2018 new versions XS and XR.