Made in India: Apple Begins Local Manufacturing of iPhone 7
Apple’s first iPhone to come without a headphone jack is likely to cost over Rs 35,000 in the country.
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After managing to start local manufacturing of the iPhone 6 series in India one year back, reports now suggest that the Cupertino-based giant is set for local production of iPhone 7 in the country.
It’s not production actually, Apple, partnering with Wistron, will assemble its iPhone 7 in Bengaluru which will be sold in the Indian market.
According to reports, Apple began the assembling process of iPhone 7 in India last month. According to Gururaj A, Head of Wistron India, the company would set up an iPhone manufacturing unit in the 43 acres of land allotted to it, with employment potential of over 10,000 people.
Wistron first started in Apple partnership in India by assembling the iPhone SE and later on moved to the iPhone 6S. Both these local assembled devices were selling in the country for less than Rs 30,000, owing to its reduced import duty costs.
Apple is slowly but steadily strategising its plans to make deeper inroads in a country where over 450 million people use smartphones, and while assembling the iPhone 7 is a progressive step, but pricing is again likely to make or break Apple’s latest product rebirth strategy for India.
The iPhone 7 runs iOS 12, is water-resistant and houses a 12MP camera, retina HD display, great battery life and stereo speakers but doesn’t sport a headphone jack. Reports state that the 32GB variant iPhone 7 gets a sticker price of Rs 39,900 while the 128GB variant Rs 49,900.
At these prices, consumers can easily buy the top-end OnePlus 6T or even the second generation Google Pixel phone, both of which are better than the iPhone 7.
(With IANS inputs)
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