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Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

245 points by sarthakjain 7y ago

contingencies 7y ago
Trying to interpret this. First of all $300M isn't a lot of money for this sort of operation. I guess it barely buys a good line of equipment, installed with an operable workforce, if that. Secondly, the amount of manual labour in iPhone assembly has to be pretty minimal with respect to margins. Can anyone enlighten us to the management situation? I guess perhaps the true story behind the 'asserted' transition to an additional base in India includes other factors like: freeing Foxconn capital from China (currently their largest production base, with rising costs, a slowing market and perennial foreign exchange hassles), gaining additional internal production operations experience within a foreign non-'Chinese' (ie. Taiwan/China) environment, and cross-jurisdictional legal/tax/tariff/exchange rate hedging. (The US-China trade war has to have scared the pants off anyone in a consumer electronics this heavily.)
- ucaetano 7y ago
  "The company needs to meet a 30 percent local sourcing rule to be able to open its own stores in the country." It is just the result of protectionism.
  - CPLX 7y ago
    It’s not “just” that, it’s actially the desired result of the protectionist policy, which appears to have been effective.
    - bottled_poe 7y ago
      How dare a country enforce policies that benefit the domestic economy.
      - briandear 7y ago
        Assuming a benefit is a fallacy. It’s a benefit only which analyzed through a superficial lens.
        bottled_poe 7y ago
        That’s a very abstract comment. Such policies seem completely measurable to me. Can you elaborate?
    - acchow 7y ago
      Why don't other large, developing countries adopt similar policies? What are the downsides?
      - iguy 7y ago
        Many do. The downside is that a heavy import tax makes whatever is being imported more expensive for local consumers to buy. In some sense this makes them poorer. The goal is usually to encourage local firms to grow and compete, and sometimes that happens (e.g. Hyundai). But sometimes the local firms become complacent in their walled garden (e.g. Hindustan Motors).
      - whenchamenia 7y ago
        You get ignored by lots of international companies that dont want to play by your silly and often unprofitable rules. Leading to a loss of choice and quality in goods and services, and a general depression of the economy over time. The softer hand moves more grain or something.
      - caymanjim 7y ago
        Revenge in the form of trade wars that screw everyone in the end. Exactly what the US is doing right now with all its tariffs, which are not helping US manufacturers (their stated intent) and are hurting US consumers (due to revenge tariffs).
      - gnopgnip 7y ago
        Many others do, but usually on a more limited basis to protect certain industries. Brazil does for virtually all electronics.
      - rodgerd 7y ago
        Strong government management of the economy was the foundation for the success of Japan, South Korea, and Singapore in the mid 20th century (as an example). So absolutely people do it.
- NTDF9 7y ago
  It's a logistics/risk balancing/new demand move. 1. Logistics: Cheaper to ship to rich Middle east and maybe even Europe 2. Risk balancing: With uncertainty at political levels about tariffs and trade rules, it makes sense to distribute production to multiple places in the world. 3. New demand: Lower cost of production == lower prices in India. Apple has negligible penetration in the largest fastest growing market. This move is a bet to try to beat android competition in price and raise global demand for IPhones. Honestly, this move is a no-brainer. The benefits are endless.
  - Ayesh 7y ago
    I think Apple is pretty late at this point. Xiaomi and Oppo have figured out the distribution, localization, and a sizeable user base already there, and a decent smart phone now costs $150-200. They are quite good phones and from what I understand, price is the biggest driver for sales.
    - plibither8 7y ago
      Apple will mostly rely on its loyal customer base (at least in India) who will support and buy only Apple products, which of course primarily means the iPhone. Plus, if the prices do in fact drop once they start manufacturing in India, I'm sure there will be many more XYZ-Chinese-company to Apple conversions.
    - itissid 7y ago
      But apple is a luxury brand. You can't say that with Xiaomi or Oppo. With luxury brand the price is not a bug but a feature for the people that swear by them. And Rich people don't even care about the money. the 50-100 million rich people in india are least bothered about the price tag as long as it signifies luxury and status.
      - jpatokal 7y ago
        Xiaomi is a luxury brand in the Chinese market. And rich by Indian standards doesn't mean they can afford to spend over $1000 on an iPhone: in India, a top 1% household earns only about $1000/month.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
lawrenceyan 7y ago
Pretty meaningful change. Hopefully the advent of this will result in increased social mobility and the rise of a homegrown hardware technology industry in the coming years.
eyeareque 7y ago
My guess is that they are only doing this to meet the local restrictions in order to open stores, avoid extra taxes inside of India.
deepGem 7y ago
Man, finally this came along. Apple had been negotiating for almost 3 years to setup manufacturing in India. Foxconn got a start in the outskirts of Bangalore where they manufacture iPhone SEs. I as a customer am super glad this is coming along. Tired of paying a premium for Apple products in India. In addition to iPhones I seriously hope they start iPad manufacturing as well. IMHO iPads will probably have a better success rate in India once the prices reach parity with US.
- hodder 7y ago
  What makes you think you will not pay a premium for iPhones in India in the future? Apple prices based on demand curves, not supply costs.
  - finebalance 7y ago
    India has a really high import tax on electronic items. Even if Apple charges a slight premium over its US prices, it's still going to be significantly cheaper than what it currently is. For example: a 64 GB iPhone X is currently selling for around 1100 dollars.
    - arcticbull 7y ago
      Or they keep them the same price and make even more impressive margins. There's a reason they have 87% of the world smartphone profit share [1] and it's not because they're giving them away or passing on the cost savings to their customers. Import duty on iPhones is 18% and 28% on iPads as of 2015. [2] Wealth inequality in India is pretty high (not as high as in the US, though, GINI 35.6 vs 40.4), and it's GDP per capita is just $1,939. Per your data, they're currently charging $1,100 which is a whopping 57% of GDP per capita. My gut tells me reducing the price of a super-luxury good by 18% won't increase demand enough to make up for pocketing the 18% savings. That would be like pricing an iPhone at $33,000 in America. I can't imagine reducing the price to $27,000 would dramatically increase the number of buyers. Or a Rolex from $100K to $82K. I guess we'll see! [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/03/02/apple-continues-to-dominate-the-smartphone-profit-pool/#1b332c1b61bb https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/03/02/apple-con... [2] https://www.labnol.org/india/custom-import-duties/19306/ https://www.labnol.org/india/custom-import-duties/19306/
kristianp 7y ago
Will there be repercussions from the US Federal government about this?
- maccio92 7y ago
  they probably supported it to get production out of china. why would there be repercussions?
outside1234 7y ago
India should demand that the Chinese firm share their manufacturing techniques.
- caymanjim 7y ago
  Foxconn is setting up the manufacturing. I'm sure they intend to share the techniques with themselves.
supernova87a 7y ago
I agree with an above poster, this seems to me like a political or legal concession just for Apple to be able to sell in India more easily (or maybe at all?). The infrastructure and political circumstances in India are just laughable. Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit. India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market.
- plibither8 7y ago
  > Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit. What? Where are you reading this? And why would you even believe it so readily? One quick Google search has the entire page full of news articles complaining of poor working conditions. Moreover, I highly doubt that the regional governments in China would aid in bettering the working conditions at manufacturing plants of an outside company, when they can't help their own workers out of the "996" work schedule [0]. [0] https://996.icu https://996.icu
- krtkush 7y ago
  > I agree with an above poster, this seems to me like a political or legal concession just for Apple to be able to sell in India more easily (or maybe at all?). Yes it is. And it has paid off well for India and it's people. > India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market. There are hundreds of thousands of factories already set up in India. India has almost all the major car companies manufacturing here, there is Samsung with its biggest phone manufacturing plant in the world, I think almost all of Xiaomi's phone sold in India are made in India. With a market as big as India's, a company as big as Apple can surely figure out how to navigate through the process.
- shripadk 7y ago
  > Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit It is called SEZ or Special Economic Zones in India. Take some time and read up on it first before coming to wrong conclusions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_economic_zone#India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_economic_zone#India. It has been around for multiple decades now. It isn't some new concept. All MNCs are situated in SEZs be it Google, Facebook, Microsoft or now Apple. Apple is the latest entrant and not first by any means. > India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market. This is a ridiculous assertion based on heresy with no evidence to back it up. Ease of doing business has increased drastically in the past few years. Multiple foreign companies have setup shop in India and some have been in India for decades now (Microsoft, Google etc). I can understand if you had compared India to a Western country but comparing it to China? Are you serious? If India was really such a "disaster" compared to China why did Google quit China and not India? Does that in itself not invalidate all your points? Also, coming to your "bribe" issue: do you mean to say "lobbying"? Because bribing is almost non-existent in India when it comes to operations of MNCs. You need to "lobby" for laws that favour MNCs. That has been the case for a long time in India now. But lobbying is also dying since Modi took over. You now have to come through the "Make in India" route. All foreign players are actually happy with it because there is zero red tape and all processes are fast-tracked. No need to lobby with anyone anymore and just focus on building and expanding your business. The issue for India was that it took this route too late (after many decades of extreme protectionism). I don't know where you get your information from but it is high time you change your source.
ulfw 7y ago
This is so against globalisation and global trade it‘s not even funny. Totally cool if Apple did this voluntarily, but the only reason they‘re doing it is to prevent high import taxes. India is a huge market. So it‘s all good. Brazil is a good deal smaller and requires the same thing. So does Argentina (and is even smaller). Now imagine every country would do this.
- Alterlife 7y ago
  In some ways, every third-world country in the world SHOULD do this. I say this as an Indian iPhone user. iPhones are a luxury product. A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off. Not only that, it's the best kind - a tax that an end-user can choose whether or not they want to pay.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    In most ways they shouldn't, poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation. If trade wars started all over the world they would suffer the most.
    - sumedh 7y ago
      > poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation. Rich countries as well, lot of pharma drugs sold in the US come from India.
  - dis-sys 7y ago
    > A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off. According to the latest market research [1] in China, IPhone are mostly used in China by undereducated people with relatively low income, people with decent education & job mostly use Android phones. This is consistent with what I see on daily basis - almost all my friends & coworkers use MacBook Pro + Huawei/Xiaomi phone. If I try really really hard, I can probably eventually list 1-2 friends & coworkers who use iPhone, but like I said, I need to try hard to recall that. [1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlights-class-divide-between-poor-apple-iphone-and-rich-huawei https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...
luminati 7y ago
Do you know if these phones will be exported to the US or just for domestic consumption in India? Also how "complicated" is the manufacturing? Is it just lsat-mile assembling of all pre-made components shipped in from the US, China, Germany, et al. or the same technical processes and complexity that goes on in one of these Chinese plants that pump out the iPhone X, XS and XS Maxes?
happybuy 7y ago
This illustrates why all of those stories[1] about why Apple can't manufacture in the USA are relatively hollow. Apple doesn't manufacture in the US as they are not forced to manufacture in the US. If they were, they'd make it happen and work-around any issues, just as they have in India. Apple doesn't want to manufacture in India (via Foxconn) but the Indian regulations and government didn't budge which forced Apple's and Foxconn's hand. Result: Apple/Foxconn is now making iPhones in India. If the US citizens stood up for their own interests more, then there would be a Made in the USA iPhone... perhaps more expensive than a China made one, but Apple may decide to absorb the margin hit to retain marketshare in their largest market. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/28/18200330/why-apple-cant-made-in-america https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/28/18200330/why-apple-cant-m...
- tinus_hn 7y ago
  However there would be a lot less choice because not all Android phone manufacturers are going to bother and the prices are going to go up because of less competition and higher costs for everyone. Also consider that other countries are going to respond to this kind of protectionism which is not free.
_pmf_ 7y ago
Good for everybody when knowledge to produce high end electronics at scale is not exclusive to China.
sreejithr 7y ago
Hopefully, sane-priced iPhones in India I guess. I'm interested now.
Yuval_Halevi 7y ago
If it will help to reduce apple prices It will be great. But probably it will cause all the phones industry to lower their prices and Apple will be the only company that their price remains the same... That's the problem with status quo

245 points by sarthakjain 7y ago

Trying to interpret this. First of all $300M isn't a lot of money for this sort of operation. I guess it barely buys a good line of equipment, installed with an operable workforce, if that. Secondly, the amount of manual labour in iPhone assembly has to be pretty minimal with respect to margins. Can anyone enlighten us to the management situation? I guess perhaps the true story behind the 'asserted' transition to an additional base in India includes other factors like: freeing Foxconn capital from China (currently their largest production base, with rising costs, a slowing market and perennial foreign exchange hassles), gaining additional internal production operations experience within a foreign non-'Chinese' (ie. Taiwan/China) environment, and cross-jurisdictional legal/tax/tariff/exchange rate hedging. (The US-China trade war has to have scared the pants off anyone in a consumer electronics this heavily.)

ucaetano 7y ago
"The company needs to meet a 30 percent local sourcing rule to be able to open its own stores in the country." It is just the result of protectionism.
- CPLX 7y ago
  It’s not “just” that, it’s actially the desired result of the protectionist policy, which appears to have been effective.
  - bottled_poe 7y ago
    How dare a country enforce policies that benefit the domestic economy.
    - briandear 7y ago
      Assuming a benefit is a fallacy. It’s a benefit only which analyzed through a superficial lens.
      - bottled_poe 7y ago
        That’s a very abstract comment. Such policies seem completely measurable to me. Can you elaborate?
  - acchow 7y ago
    Why don't other large, developing countries adopt similar policies? What are the downsides?
    - iguy 7y ago
      Many do. The downside is that a heavy import tax makes whatever is being imported more expensive for local consumers to buy. In some sense this makes them poorer. The goal is usually to encourage local firms to grow and compete, and sometimes that happens (e.g. Hyundai). But sometimes the local firms become complacent in their walled garden (e.g. Hindustan Motors).
    - whenchamenia 7y ago
      You get ignored by lots of international companies that dont want to play by your silly and often unprofitable rules. Leading to a loss of choice and quality in goods and services, and a general depression of the economy over time. The softer hand moves more grain or something.
    - caymanjim 7y ago
      Revenge in the form of trade wars that screw everyone in the end. Exactly what the US is doing right now with all its tariffs, which are not helping US manufacturers (their stated intent) and are hurting US consumers (due to revenge tariffs).
    - gnopgnip 7y ago
      Many others do, but usually on a more limited basis to protect certain industries. Brazil does for virtually all electronics.
    - rodgerd 7y ago
      Strong government management of the economy was the foundation for the success of Japan, South Korea, and Singapore in the mid 20th century (as an example). So absolutely people do it.
NTDF9 7y ago
It's a logistics/risk balancing/new demand move. 1. Logistics: Cheaper to ship to rich Middle east and maybe even Europe 2. Risk balancing: With uncertainty at political levels about tariffs and trade rules, it makes sense to distribute production to multiple places in the world. 3. New demand: Lower cost of production == lower prices in India. Apple has negligible penetration in the largest fastest growing market. This move is a bet to try to beat android competition in price and raise global demand for IPhones. Honestly, this move is a no-brainer. The benefits are endless.
- Ayesh 7y ago
  I think Apple is pretty late at this point. Xiaomi and Oppo have figured out the distribution, localization, and a sizeable user base already there, and a decent smart phone now costs $150-200. They are quite good phones and from what I understand, price is the biggest driver for sales.
  - plibither8 7y ago
    Apple will mostly rely on its loyal customer base (at least in India) who will support and buy only Apple products, which of course primarily means the iPhone. Plus, if the prices do in fact drop once they start manufacturing in India, I'm sure there will be many more XYZ-Chinese-company to Apple conversions.
  - itissid 7y ago
    But apple is a luxury brand. You can't say that with Xiaomi or Oppo. With luxury brand the price is not a bug but a feature for the people that swear by them. And Rich people don't even care about the money. the 50-100 million rich people in india are least bothered about the price tag as long as it signifies luxury and status.
    - jpatokal 7y ago
      Xiaomi is a luxury brand in the Chinese market. And rich by Indian standards doesn't mean they can afford to spend over $1000 on an iPhone: in India, a top 1% household earns only about $1000/month.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

lawrenceyan 7y ago

Pretty meaningful change. Hopefully the advent of this will result in increased social mobility and the rise of a homegrown hardware technology industry in the coming years.

eyeareque 7y ago

My guess is that they are only doing this to meet the local restrictions in order to open stores, avoid extra taxes inside of India.

deepGem 7y ago

Man, finally this came along. Apple had been negotiating for almost 3 years to setup manufacturing in India. Foxconn got a start in the outskirts of Bangalore where they manufacture iPhone SEs. I as a customer am super glad this is coming along. Tired of paying a premium for Apple products in India. In addition to iPhones I seriously hope they start iPad manufacturing as well. IMHO iPads will probably have a better success rate in India once the prices reach parity with US.

hodder 7y ago
What makes you think you will not pay a premium for iPhones in India in the future? Apple prices based on demand curves, not supply costs.
- finebalance 7y ago
  India has a really high import tax on electronic items. Even if Apple charges a slight premium over its US prices, it's still going to be significantly cheaper than what it currently is. For example: a 64 GB iPhone X is currently selling for around 1100 dollars.
  - arcticbull 7y ago
    Or they keep them the same price and make even more impressive margins. There's a reason they have 87% of the world smartphone profit share [1] and it's not because they're giving them away or passing on the cost savings to their customers. Import duty on iPhones is 18% and 28% on iPads as of 2015. [2] Wealth inequality in India is pretty high (not as high as in the US, though, GINI 35.6 vs 40.4), and it's GDP per capita is just $1,939. Per your data, they're currently charging $1,100 which is a whopping 57% of GDP per capita. My gut tells me reducing the price of a super-luxury good by 18% won't increase demand enough to make up for pocketing the 18% savings. That would be like pricing an iPhone at $33,000 in America. I can't imagine reducing the price to $27,000 would dramatically increase the number of buyers. Or a Rolex from $100K to $82K. I guess we'll see! [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/03/02/apple-continues-to-dominate-the-smartphone-profit-pool/#1b332c1b61bb https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2018/03/02/apple-con... [2] https://www.labnol.org/india/custom-import-duties/19306/ https://www.labnol.org/india/custom-import-duties/19306/

kristianp 7y ago

Will there be repercussions from the US Federal government about this?

maccio92 7y ago
they probably supported it to get production out of china. why would there be repercussions?

outside1234 7y ago

India should demand that the Chinese firm share their manufacturing techniques.

caymanjim 7y ago
Foxconn is setting up the manufacturing. I'm sure they intend to share the techniques with themselves.

supernova87a 7y ago

I agree with an above poster, this seems to me like a political or legal concession just for Apple to be able to sell in India more easily (or maybe at all?). The infrastructure and political circumstances in India are just laughable. Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit. India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market.

plibither8 7y ago
> Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit. What? Where are you reading this? And why would you even believe it so readily? One quick Google search has the entire page full of news articles complaining of poor working conditions. Moreover, I highly doubt that the regional governments in China would aid in bettering the working conditions at manufacturing plants of an outside company, when they can't help their own workers out of the "996" work schedule [0]. [0] https://996.icu https://996.icu
krtkush 7y ago
> I agree with an above poster, this seems to me like a political or legal concession just for Apple to be able to sell in India more easily (or maybe at all?). Yes it is. And it has paid off well for India and it's people. > India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market. There are hundreds of thousands of factories already set up in India. India has almost all the major car companies manufacturing here, there is Samsung with its biggest phone manufacturing plant in the world, I think almost all of Xiaomi's phone sold in India are made in India. With a market as big as India's, a company as big as Apple can surely figure out how to navigate through the process.
shripadk 7y ago
> Read all the articles about the manufacturing ecosystem around Apple factories in China, the special bonded customs zones the regional governments set up, the incentives, and workers they help recruit It is called SEZ or Special Economic Zones in India. Take some time and read up on it first before coming to wrong conclusions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_economic_zone#India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_economic_zone#India. It has been around for multiple decades now. It isn't some new concept. All MNCs are situated in SEZs be it Google, Facebook, Microsoft or now Apple. Apple is the latest entrant and not first by any means. > India by comparison is a disaster. You don't even know which official to bribe to get the power to stay on properly. Almost more trouble than it's worth to enter that market. This is a ridiculous assertion based on heresy with no evidence to back it up. Ease of doing business has increased drastically in the past few years. Multiple foreign companies have setup shop in India and some have been in India for decades now (Microsoft, Google etc). I can understand if you had compared India to a Western country but comparing it to China? Are you serious? If India was really such a "disaster" compared to China why did Google quit China and not India? Does that in itself not invalidate all your points? Also, coming to your "bribe" issue: do you mean to say "lobbying"? Because bribing is almost non-existent in India when it comes to operations of MNCs. You need to "lobby" for laws that favour MNCs. That has been the case for a long time in India now. But lobbying is also dying since Modi took over. You now have to come through the "Make in India" route. All foreign players are actually happy with it because there is zero red tape and all processes are fast-tracked. No need to lobby with anyone anymore and just focus on building and expanding your business. The issue for India was that it took this route too late (after many decades of extreme protectionism). I don't know where you get your information from but it is high time you change your source.

ulfw 7y ago

This is so against globalisation and global trade it‘s not even funny. Totally cool if Apple did this voluntarily, but the only reason they‘re doing it is to prevent high import taxes. India is a huge market. So it‘s all good. Brazil is a good deal smaller and requires the same thing. So does Argentina (and is even smaller). Now imagine every country would do this.

Alterlife 7y ago
In some ways, every third-world country in the world SHOULD do this. I say this as an Indian iPhone user. iPhones are a luxury product. A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off. Not only that, it's the best kind - a tax that an end-user can choose whether or not they want to pay.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  In most ways they shouldn't, poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation. If trade wars started all over the world they would suffer the most.
  - sumedh 7y ago
    > poorer countries have been doing rather well out of globalisation. Rich countries as well, lot of pharma drugs sold in the US come from India.
- dis-sys 7y ago
  > A tax on imported high end electronics is a tax on the well-off. According to the latest market research [1] in China, IPhone are mostly used in China by undereducated people with relatively low income, people with decent education & job mostly use Android phones. This is consistent with what I see on daily basis - almost all my friends & coworkers use MacBook Pro + Huawei/Xiaomi phone. If I try really really hard, I can probably eventually list 1-2 friends & coworkers who use iPhone, but like I said, I need to try hard to recall that. [1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlights-class-divide-between-poor-apple-iphone-and-rich-huawei https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2174310/research-highlight...

luminati 7y ago

Do you know if these phones will be exported to the US or just for domestic consumption in India? Also how "complicated" is the manufacturing? Is it just lsat-mile assembling of all pre-made components shipped in from the US, China, Germany, et al. or the same technical processes and complexity that goes on in one of these Chinese plants that pump out the iPhone X, XS and XS Maxes?

happybuy 7y ago

This illustrates why all of those stories[1] about why Apple can't manufacture in the USA are relatively hollow. Apple doesn't manufacture in the US as they are not forced to manufacture in the US. If they were, they'd make it happen and work-around any issues, just as they have in India. Apple doesn't want to manufacture in India (via Foxconn) but the Indian regulations and government didn't budge which forced Apple's and Foxconn's hand. Result: Apple/Foxconn is now making iPhones in India. If the US citizens stood up for their own interests more, then there would be a Made in the USA iPhone... perhaps more expensive than a China made one, but Apple may decide to absorb the margin hit to retain marketshare in their largest market. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/28/18200330/why-apple-cant-made-in-america https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/28/18200330/why-apple-cant-m...

tinus_hn 7y ago
However there would be a lot less choice because not all Android phone manufacturers are going to bother and the prices are going to go up because of less competition and higher costs for everyone. Also consider that other countries are going to respond to this kind of protectionism which is not free.

_pmf_ 7y ago

Good for everybody when knowledge to produce high end electronics at scale is not exclusive to China.

sreejithr 7y ago

Hopefully, sane-priced iPhones in India I guess. I'm interested now.

Yuval_Halevi 7y ago

If it will help to reduce apple prices It will be great. But probably it will cause all the phones industry to lower their prices and Apple will be the only company that their price remains the same... That's the problem with status quo