Production of Apple iPhone 15 reportedly kicks off in India

The main iPhone manufacturer for Apple has reportedly had the assembly of the tech giant’s upcoming iteration of the product kick off in India. 

That production of the iPhone 15 is taking place with Foxconn at a facility in Tamil Nadu, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The outlet cited anonymous sources “familiar with the matter.”

Pegatron Corp. and a factory from another company will follow Foxconn not long after in initiating similar efforts of their own in India for the next-gen device, according to the report.

FOX Business reached out to Apple, Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron for comment but has not received responses so far.

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Apple reportedly wants to make the lag period between shipping iPhones put together in China and those from India even shorter in 2023. Foxconn shipments of India-assembled iPhone 15s may only trail those from China by weeks, according to Bloomberg.

FOX Business previously reported that the company has recently been turning to India more for production, a move it has made while trying to reduce its reliance on China for such operations. The share of iPhones assembled in India has hit 7%, according to an April report from Bloomberg.

APPLE’S IPHONE 15 REPORTEDLY DUE IN SEPTEMBER

Prior reports have suggested that the widely anticipated iPhone 15 could make its debut in September. Apple often holds an event in which it unveils new products during that month.

Last year’s happened Sept. 7, 2022.

For the third quarter, iPhones generated net sales of $39.67 billion for Apple, below Refinitiv estimates of $39.91 billion. On an annual basis, they fell 2.4%, according to the company.

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Apple CFO Luca Maestri said this month that iPhones saw “great performance” demand-wise in emerging markets, setting quarterly records in many of them, including India. Some other areas that had high demand for iPhones included Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Middle East, according to Maestri.

The U.S. smartphone market, meanwhile, has been “in a decline for the last couple of quarters,” he said.

At the expected event next month, on top of the iPhone 15, Apple could also reveal a new version of the Apple Watch, according to reports. 

The company’s first iPhone became available in 2007.

Peter Aitken and Joe Toppe contributed to this report.