A new report says that Apple will finally hit a long-held goal to reduce its dependence on China with the launch of the iPhone 17.
Indian iPhone production has always lagged behind that of China, but all this is now changing – with import tariffs acting as an additional incentive …
Apple’s long-term goal
The vast majority of iPhones are still assembled in China, but Apple has for many years been working on boosting the number of phones made in other countries. India is the company’s secondary manufacturing hub, with Apple reportedly aiming to achieve 50% of iPhone production there within the next couple of years.
A key milestone would be to begin manufacturing the latest iPhone line-up on the same date in both India and China. Apple had hoped to do so with the iPhone 16, but wasn’t quite able to pull it off, with Indian assembly starting a few weeks late.
US import tariffs on Chinese-manufactured products had added an additional incentive for Apple to accelerate progress on this goal, and it had been reported that simultaneous production will happen for the iPhone 17 line-up.
Bloomberg says the goal has now been achieved
A new Bloomberg report today says that all four iPhone 17 models are now in production in India and will ship to the US from day one.
The company is producing all four iPhone 17 models in India ahead of their debut next month, marking the first time that all new variations — including pro-level versions — will ship from the South Asian country from the get-go, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
This has been made possible by the recent opening of two additional iPhone plants in India, bringing the total there to five.
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