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Analysts and industry executives also estimate the December quarter will mark Apple’s highest ever shipment of iPhones to India at around 570,000 units compared with 370,000 units last year.
Apple has been progressively reducing the India production lag of new iPhone models since launch. It went from 10-12 months to six months for its last flagship model, the iPhone 13. This year, it’s going to be 2-3 months from the launch though trial runs are scheduled to start by next month.
11-12 million units may be made locally
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Apple didn’t respond to queries.
This is part of the company’s strategy to set up new global production hubs to lower its reliance on China, where production has been hampered multiple times since the pandemic due to the country’s zero-Covid policy forcing local lockdowns. However, the launch phase supplies of the iPhone 14 series<\/a> in India and globally will be from China.
“Apple’s iPhone 14 is expected to be the largest volume grosser in India amongst the new iPhones launched and hence that is likely to be the model to be first locally produced,” said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research<\/a>. “Since the selling price is also high, it will help Apple to achieve its production linked incentive target in India.”
He said the series is expected to account for more than 20-25% of all iPhone sales in India in the December quarter.
Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of four models as part of its new iPhone 14 series–the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro<\/a> and iPhone 14 Pro Max<\/a>, with prices ranging from Rs 79,900 to Rs 1,89,900. The company will begin selling these models in India on September 16, with the exception of the iPhone 14 Plus, which will start on October 7, at the same as it’s doing so in bigger markets such as the US, UK, China, Japan and France.
Apple is expected to make 11-12 million iPhones in India through its three contract manufacturers in 2022, up from 7.5 million in 2021. Locally made iPhones are expected to account for 85% of domestic demand in 2022.