'Assembled in India' iPhone 11 reached retail stores

Piyush Goyal, the Commerce and Industry Minister has announced that Apple has begun manufacturing its highest-selling model iPhone 11 in India. This move has been a major boost to Make in India initiative.  

In a tweet, the minister mentioned, "Significant boost to Make in India! Apple has started manufacturing iPhone 11 in India, bringing a top-of-the-line model for the first time in the country".

As per news source, there are few 'Assembled in India' units of iPhone 11 that have reached the retail stores. According to sources, lockdown delayed the assembled iPhone 11 units to reach the market but now, there has been an increase in the supply.

However, there is no price cut and the MRP on locally assembled iPhone 11s remains the same as earlier, as per sources.

At present, both iPhone XR and iPhone 11 are being assembled by Foxconn at its Chennai manufacturing plant. On the other hand iPhone 7 is being assembled by Wistron in Bengaluru.  

Original iPhone SE and iPhone 6s were assembled by Wistron but those were discontinued in 2019.

Apple is also planning to assemble its new iPhone SE in India. The iPhone maker has already asked one of its suppliers in China to start shipping components for the iPhone SE 2020 to its manufacturing partner Wistron in India, as per reports.

Assembling the iPhones under the 'Make in India' initiative will help the company avoid the 22% tax on its imported phones as per local manufacturing norms.

Apple is reportedly seeking to shift roughly a fifth of existing China-based output to India.

Foxconn is also planning to invest up to $1 billion to expand its India operations, similarly, Pegatron, the second-largest iPhone assembler, is also reportedly planning to invest in the country.