Washington [US], October 6 (ANI): Apple is asking its suppliers to maneuver the manufacturing of some AirPods and Beats headphones to India, which might support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make-in-India’ marketing campaign.
This is for the primary time that Apple requested to maneuver the AirPods and Beats headphone manufacturing to India. The transfer is taken into account as a win for the South Asia nation because it makes an attempt to rise within the international provide chain, Nikkei Asia reported.
This transfer can also be seen as Apple strolling away from China to decrease the danger of provide chain disruptions stemming from the nation’s strict zero-COVID coverage and tensions with the US.
iPhone assembler Foxconn is making ready to make Beats headphones within the nation, and hopes to finally produce AirPods there as nicely, Nikkei Asia reported.
Luxshare Precision Industry and its associates, which produce AirPods in Vietnam and China, additionally plan to assist Apple make the favored wi-fi earphones in India, in keeping with Nikkei Asia citing sources.
However, Luxshare is focusing extra on its Vietnamese AirPods operations for now and might be slower than its opponents in beginning significant manufacturing of Apple merchandise in India.
Earlier, the manufacturing of AirPods shifted to Vietnam in 2019 amid fallout from the US-China commerce battle, changing into one of many earliest Apple merchandise to be mass-produced outdoors of China.
More than 70 million items are shipped every year, second solely to the iPhone amongst Apple merchandise when it comes to cargo quantity. The majority of Beats manufacturing has additionally shifted to Vietnam since final 12 months, in keeping with Nikkei Asia citing sources.
Bringing AirPods and Beats manufacturing to India would enlarge Apple’s manufacturing footprint within the nation, following a current announcement that the most recent iPhone is already being made there. Apple began having some older iPhone fashions made in India in 2017 by a smaller provider, Wistron, however solely accelerated such manufacturing final 12 months.
Joey Yen, a tech analyst with IDC stated that India will emerge as a key various for electronics manufacturing outdoors China.
“India is learning from China’s success over the years, and it has a similar potential to become a very meaningful player in the global supply chain. It has young engineering talent and a big workforce, and a massive domestic market as a foundation,” Yen stated as quoted by Nikkei Asia. (ANI)