Apple has started manufacturing iPhone 14s in India, as it shifts some production away from China for the first time amid China’s Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and geopolitical tensions between the US and the communist government of the country.
A production line in Chennai has started operating, assembling the iPhone 14 for the Indian domestic market. The move, which marks the first time the company has assembled iPhones outside of China the same year they were released, is part of a plan to decouple its manufacturing operations from the Chinese state.
Apple unveiled its latest line of iPhones earlier this month. The iPhone 14 will have improved cameras, faster processors and longer lasting batteries at the same prices as last year’s models.
India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China, and Apple has been assembling phones there since 2017. But until now, manufacturing operations in the country, alongside similar operations in Brazil, have focused on assembling older models.
According to a report by JP Morgan analysts, Apple aims to produce a quarter of all iPhone 14s in India by 2025, and the same proportion of all its products outside China by the same date, up from around 5% currently. The company also intends to produce a fifth of all its iPads and Apple Watches, and more than half of all its AirPods, in factories in Vietnam by the same date.
Relations between China and the United States have become increasingly strained, causing difficulties for Apple.
This summer, Apple required Taiwan suppliers — including chipmakers — to label the origin of their products as “Chinese Taipei” to comply with a longstanding but unenforced Chinese rule that requires goods imported to falsely suggest that the island is one of them. of the People’s Republic of China. The request follows a visit to Taipei by Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Taiwan has an opposite rule, requiring products to be labeled as “Taiwan” or the country’s official name, “Republic of China.”
The choice to require suppliers to deny Taiwan’s independent existence has drawn criticism around the world.
GreatFire, which works against Chinese censorship online, noted that the move was an escalation from a previous decision by Apple, which removed the Taiwanese flag from emoji keyboards for users in China and Hong Kong.
“Is it a matter of time before Apple starts removing apps whose names contain the characters [for] Taiwan without specifying “province of China”? asked the organization.