Apple set to ramp up production in India: After iPhones, iPads and AirPods on the horizon

Over a year ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook personally opened the doors to India's first Apple retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi.

This move signaled that the California-based tech giant is betting big on India, a country with 1.4 billion people and the second-largest smartphone market in the world, after China.

Building on this momentum, Apple is reportedly gearing up to further ramp up production capacity in India with iPads followed by AirPods. This marks a significant step, as iPads will become the second Apple product manufactured in India, following the iPhone.

In 2021, only one percent of Apple's iPhones were made in India. This number jumped to seven percent in 2022. Apple began manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 through Taiwanese suppliers Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron.

Apple aims to manufacture a quarter of its total iPhones in India over the next few years, up from the current 14 percent.

Regarding AirPods, Apple has initiated trial production of the wireless charging case components in Pune with Jabil, an American contract manufacturing company. There are also plans to expand these efforts to include Foxconn. Currently, these case components are being exported to China and Vietnam.

Foxconn, China's largest private-sector employer with over a million workers, is also looking to diversify its manufacturing supply chain.

Production in China was impacted by three years of strict Covid policies, industrial unrest, and diplomatic tensions with the United States. Analysts now project that a significant portion of Apple products will be made outside China by 2025.

India's government is encouraging Apple to consider manufacturing laptops and desktops in the country in the coming years. With more than 600 million smartphone users, India is a crucial market and Apple's plans will not only boost the local manufacturing ecosystem but also create jobs.