Apple Inc will start making the new iPhone 14 in India two months after its release out of China. This change will result in the reduction of the production lag from the usual six to nine months for previous iPhones.
According to a report by Bloomberg News, the tech giant has been collaborating with its suppliers to increase manufacturing in India and the first iPhone 14s from the country are slated to be completed in late October or November, after its first release in September 2022.
Apple's Taiwan-based supplier Foxconn has researched the process of shipping items from China and assembling the iPhone 14 at its plant located outside Chennai, India.
As per a report by Reuters, Apple is looking for alternative options after Beijing's clashes with Washington and lockdowns in China that have disrupted the production process.
Apple is in the process of transferring some parts of the iPhone production process from China to other markets such as India, which is the world's second-largest smartphone market. It also intends to start assembling iPad tablets in India.
Other countries such as Mexico and Vietnam are also turning into crucial locations to contract manufacturers who are supplying American brands as they attempt to diversify production away from China.
The US was also considering the option of limiting shipments of American chipmaking equipment to memory chip makers in China in order to halt China's semiconductor sector developments and protect US companies.
If the Biden administration goes ahead with limiting shipment, it could hurt South Korean memory chip giants such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and SK Hynix Inc, that have large factories in the country.
Earlier this month, the Nikkei reported that Apple suppliers were in talks to produce Apple Watch and MacBook in Vietnam for the first time.
(With inputs from Reuters and Bloomberg)
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