In an effort to grow beyond its minuscule share of the smartphone market in India, Apple will reportedly start having its higher end iPhone models being built in the country starting next year.
Foxconn, one of Apple’s leading contract manufacturers, will begin building Apple’s line of iPhones, including its top-end iPhone X models, in India, starting in early 2019, according to a report from Reuters. Taiwan-based Foxconn already manufacturers most of Apple’s iPhones at facilities in China.
But the move to expand its smartphone sales in India is seen as crucial for Apple as it seeks to counter flattening iPhone sales in other geographical areas. Building iPhones in India is expected to help Apple get around government regulations and import taxes that have hampered the company’s efforts to increase its share of the country’s smartphone market.
Apple has so far concentrated on selling older, less-expensive iPhones such as the iPhone 6S and iPhone SE in India, and is estimated to have just a 1 percent share of India’s smartphone market.
The Reuters report said Foxconn will invest $356 million to expand its plant in the southern Indian city of Sriperumbudur in order to add iPhone production to the facility. Foxconn already builds smartphones for Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi at the plant.
Apple recently sparked fears about the state of its iPhone business when, in November, it gave a weaker-than-expected quarterly sales forecast and also said it would no longer provide quarterly unit sales figures for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.
