iPhone's sweet 16! India to rush in and join sales party

In a first, made-in-India iPhone 16 series will be available across the world within the first few days of the launch of sales, multiple people familiar with the matter told ET.

Apple is scheduled to unveil the latest range on Monday and worldwide sales are likely to begin within 10-12 days.

Foxconn has commenced production of the iPhone 16 series in India, to be exported and made available in multiple cities and countries, officials said.


This may well be the first time that a global player will make available a product manufactured in Indian factories across the world within the first few days of the start of sales, experts said.

Achieving this milestone four years after beginning iPhone production in India indicates the importance of the local manufacturing landscape for the Cupertino-based tech major. The maker of the iconic smartphones is diversifying production base out of China amid Sino-US geopolitical tensions.

Even the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max model will be shipped overseas from India over the next few months, officials said. This is the first time that Apple has started making the Pro and Pro Max models in India.

Queries sent to Apple and Foxconn remained unanswered at the time of going to press.

India currently contributes about 14% to the US tech giant's overall production, emerging as a key hub for its global exports, according to the latest Economic Survey. The share doubled from FY23.

According to a report by JPMorgan, Apple plans to shift 25% of its iPhone production to India by 2025, to diversify its manufacturing base.

iPhones are only manufactured in India and China.

Apple has been narrowing the lag for India-made iPhones with the global launch over the last four years. In 2021, which was the first year for Apple's contract manufacturers to make iPhones in India, the lag was a few months - meaning made-in-India iPhone 13 reached global outlets a few months after the launch.

In 2022, the company reduced the gap between the launch of iPhone 14 sales from China and India to less than two weeks. Last year, Apple launched the iPhone 15 simultaneously from Indian and Chinese factories, but the made-in-India devices were only available in India on day 1 of sale. It took some days for the iPhone 15 made here to reach the global outlets.

This year, the made-in-India iPhone 16 series will be available to consumers in various countries in the first few days of retail launch as shipments are going out from Tuesday (September 10).

The iPhone 16 series is touted as one the most advanced devices, coming with artificial intelligence (AI) features, experts said.

Apple's contract manufacturers - Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron (now owned by Tata group) and Pegatron - produced iPhones worth ₹1.20 lakh crore in India in FY24, of which devices worth ₹85,000 crore were exported.

Production and exports numbers consider the freight on board value at which a device leaves the factory. Retail prices are about 60% higher.

Apple has been at the forefront of driving mobile phone exports from India and has emerged as the flagbearer of the PLI scheme for smartphones.