Tata Group to Become India's First iPhone Maker

Tata Group is closing a deal to acquire Apple's supplier factory in India. The factory may be acquired in August, and once closed, it will be the first time a local company has started assembling iPhones. According to the Bloomberg news agency, Tata Group wants to take over a Wistron Corporation factory in Karnataka. The factory has over 10,000 employees, is valued at over $600 million, and currently assembles the iPhone 14 model.

Wistron Corp. has pledged to ship $1.8 billion worth of iPhones for the fiscal year ending March 2024 and triple the factory's workforce by next year. The Bloomberg report claims Tata Group will honour these commitments after acquiring the factory. The acquisition of the Wistron Corp factory will mark the end of the Taiwanese company's iPhone manufacturing operation in India. The Indian government has recently introduced various programs to encourage manufacturing in the country. On the other hand, Apple has also been looking to diversify its iPhone production beyond China to other South Asian countries. Other major Apple suppliers, such as Foxconn Group and Pegatron Corporation, recently increased production.

The production of iPhones by an Indian brand could motivate other global companies to consider manufacturing in India to reduce their dependency on China. An earlier report by TrendForce claimed that the Tata Group may manufacture the upcoming iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models in India. The report claims that Tata Group will receive smaller orders, which means the company will only receive small orders for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. It could also mean that India becomes part of the first wave of shipments of the new iPhone series, which is expected to launch in September this year.