Apple plans HUGE manufacturing increase in India – reports

Apple plans to increase manufacturing capacity in India fivefold over the next five years, local reports claim today. In dollar terms, that means the current $7 billion in products made there will become $40 billion.

Getting the team together

Apple hasn’t confirmed this news, but it seems in keeping with the momentum of what the company and its partners have been doing. Foxconn is investing billions in additional capacity and it’s understood that Apple partners across the board are being encouraged to set up there, along with Thailand, and Vietnam.

AirPods are expected to start being made in India next year, even as India’s government attempts to push PC manufacturers to ramp up their production in the country. Cupertino won’t be manufacturing hardware there, but it remains possible its partners might.

Apple is launching its first India-made iPhone 15’s at this time and as a result of ramping up its production facilities in India is now the nation’s biggest smartphone exporter.

The future gets brighter

“Our new bottom-up forecast implies India can grow from $6B of revenue today to $40B of total Apple revenue in a decade and add 170M users to Apple’s iPhone installed base. This implies that over the next 5 years, India will account for 15% of Apple’s revenue growth and 20% of its installed base growth,” said Morgan Stanley analyst, Erik Woodring earlier this year.

The rapid evolution of Apple’s business and supply chain there suggests his analysis may be on track.

Update: There’s no travel without adversity, of course, and today we learn that one of Pegatron’s iPhone production line (churning out around 10% of India’s iPhone production) had to be closed following a fire Sunday September 24.

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