Apple maker in India iPhone plans to stutter amid quality issues: Report

Apple sees India as a core manufacturing hub in the coming years and is expanding its base in the country with the help of its vendors and local partners such as the Tata Group. But the iPhone maker is slowly realizing how much work is needed to meet quality standards.

According to sources quoted in the Financial Times report, the company is having challenges getting iPhone components right.

The problem has been seen at Tata’s case factory, where the components do not yet meet Apple’s high quality standards. According to the report, a 50 percent production yield does not meet Apple’s zero-defect goal. In addition to these, Apple has also faced challenges related to logistics, tariffs and infrastructure.

Experts have mentioned that for companies like Apple to fully manufacture in India, even with companies like Foxconn, the local supplier ecosystem and workforce must be skilled to handle such applications. The company started as an iPhone manufacturer in India in 2017 with the iPhone SE model. Fast forward to 2023 and the company is now manufacturing the latest vanilla iPhones in India to be sold in the country.

But if India is expected to help manage the demand load in the global market through exports, the company would need more help from the government as well as the backers, in this case the Tata Group. Apple also wants to gradually use the Indian base to manufacture AirPods, iPads and even MacBooks in the next few years.

The company is also close to opening its first retail store in the country, the first of which is said to be in Mumbai and the next likely to be in Delhi. Apple remains bullish on the Indian market, something Tim Cook has reiterated in recent years. And if the company really wants to gain a strong foothold in the country, it needs to push beyond local manufacturing.

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