Apple says it will produce iPhone 12 in India under PLI scheme

Apple on March 10 said the iPhone 12 will be produced in India, in a move beneficial to both the government and the technology giant.

Only the base model of the iPhone 12 will be manufactured, and the Pro models will be imported from China. Apple already manufactures the iPhone SE (2020), the iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 in India, through its contract manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron.

Under the Indian government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Apple has partnered with Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron. Analysts estimate that Apple's market share in India was 4 percent in the October-December quarter of 2020, higher than 2 percent in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is bullish about the company's prospects in the Indian market.

"This is particularly the case in some of the emerging markets where we're proud of how we've done. If you take India for example, we doubled our business last quarter compared to a year ago but our absolute level of business there is still quite low relative to the size of the opportunity," Cook told analysts during a post-earnings call.