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Apple is very close to starting production of its iPhone in India, as the company is now working with its local partners on setting up production facilities in the country.
Cupertino has been trying for months to expand its operations in the Indian market to benefit from the local smartphone boom, but the local laws require domestic manufacturing before opening stores.
Furthermore, although it was willing to make some concessions, the Indian government refused to allow Apple to circumvent the requirements of setting up manufacturing facilities in the country, so now the firm is ready to take this step as well.
TOI reveals that Apple’s Indian production plans involve Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker that’s already a partner of the company, and the two will set up a manufacturing facility in Penya, Bengaluru. And while there’s no confirmation from Apple regarding its Indian expansion plans, it’s believed that production would begin in April next year with the iPhone 7.
New job listings for Indian operations
At the same time, Apple has also posted ads for several jobs in India, some of which hint that production of iPhones could indeed start locally.
As 9to5mac notes, one of the job openings states that Apple is looking for an “iPhone Operations Manager” in Bengaluru, India, whose responsibility will be boosting domestic operations.
“The Operations Program Manager (OPM) will lead Apple’s new products ramp in India with superior product quality and maximum customer availability. This individual will also own operational success of the products throughout their product life cycle,” the job ad reads, while the responsibilities section adds that this employee would be in charge of “driving ramp readiness with engineering, operations and OEM teams, planning capacity and manage factory budget.”
Making iPhones in India will allow Apple to benefit from one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, likely to become the second after China as soon as 2017. At this point, iPhones are sold through third-party retailers in India, which barely gives Apple 5 percent of the Indian mobile market.