Apple India: iPhone manufacture climbs, stores about to open

by Jonny Evans · April 5, 2023

Apple has a colourful vision for Mumbai store

Another day, another set of news items out of India, where sales of iPhones made locally are surging even as the company prepares to open the first of its coming chain of stores in that country.

iPhone manufacturing climbs

The first chapter actually reprises a Counterpoint research survey discussed last week, adding that the shipment volumes of iPhones made in India grew 65% year on year.

Apple now accounts for 25% of India’s total smartphone shipments as the local government shares $6.65 billion in incentives to manufacturers to shift production there. We think around half of all Apple’s iPhones will be made in India by 2027.

Apple’s first India retail store teases its color scheme

The second relates to Apple’s upcoming store in Mumbai. This will be called Apple BKC (as it is situated in Bandra Kurla Complex at Jio World Drive Mall).

That shop is expected to open in the next week or so and has been given a unique color scheme reflecting local taxi art. You can get a sense of this from Apple’s curated music playlist for the store and new wallpaper available for download here.

On its India website, Apple says:

“Hello Mumbai. We are getting ready to welcome you aboard our first store in India. And raring to see where your creativity takes you at Apple BKC.”

We also expect Apple to open a store in New Delhi soon after this initial launch, and it seems likely stores will appear in other major conurbations in future.

In other recent news from India:

Pegatron in talks to open second iPhone factory in India
Apple wants new working laws in India.
Apple isabout to open its first retail stores in India.
Foxconn plans tobegin AirPods production in India.
New Indiasmartphone security proposals may cause problems for Apple.
India’schanged labour laws for Foxconn in one region.
Apple has decided to change its global sales structure, elevating Ashish Chowdhary to lead Apple’s teams in India.
Apple VP Lisa Jackson gave an extraordinarily insightful interviewin which the company promised to make big investments in carbon neutral supply chain development in India.
Apple also announced it will work with NGO Frank Water to improve water managementin India and Bengaluru.
More recently, a senior executive of an Apple partner called Goertek made news when he suggested Apple is pushing really hard to get suppliers to set up manufacturing in India.
That same executive made headlines again a few days later when he suddenly resigned with immediate effect.
Apple supplier Foxconn announced a massive $700 million investment in building a new manufacturing facilityat about the same time.
That’s raising some friction in China, where Foxconn had to deny claims distributed on social media that the company is dismantling its existing production linesin China’s Shenzhen.