Apple aims to make 25% of iPhones in India, minister claims

Apple’s push into India continues. A highly placed government minister in India gave us a huge glimpse into the extent of the iPhone maker’s plans.

Apple wants 25% manufacturing in India

Minister of commerce, industry and consumer affairs Piyush Goyal says Apple wants to make India accountable for 25% of its manufacturing, up from the 5%-7% it has already achieved there.

“Apple is already at about 5%-7% of their manufacturing in India. If I am not mistaken, they are targeting to go up to 25% of their manufacturing. They launched the most recent models from India, manufactured in India,” he said.

His opinion may solely be based on hearsay.

After all, JP Morgan has claimed Apple aims to make 25% of iPhones in India by 2025 and we’ve heard more on these plans from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo before that. Kuo says Apple is doing what it can to accelerate manufacturing deployment in India.

But deployment is accelerating

We know that the pace of manufacturing deployment in India is increasing. Apple’s key partners, supported by smaller component manufacturers, are building up operations there while local partners (including the huge Tata conglomerate) are investing their way into the AAPL ecosystem.

India is just one beneficiary of Apple’s general strategy to build up a more resilient multipoint supply chain. Various devices including Macs and AirPods are being manufactured outside China in places such as Vietnam, Thailand, even while some strategic manufacturing begins elsewhere, such as TSMC’s chip manufacturing factory in Arizona, US.

But India is already deriving significant benefit from this move, with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnav this week Tweeting that Apple’s exports from India reached a billion dollars in value in December.

Apple is expected to open its first retail stores in India this year.

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