Google plans shifting Pixel phone assembly to India from China

After Apple, rival tech giant Google is planning to shift the assembly of one of its flagship phone brands to India, as COVID-19-induced lockdowns continue to hit the pace of manufacturing in China, a report said on September 12.

Google has asked manufacturers in India to submit bids for the assembly of 500,000 to 1 million units of its Pixel smartphones, The Information reported, citing a company source.

The amount of devices which Google wants to be assembled in India will account for 10 to 20 percent of the Pixel's estimated total annual production, the report said, adding that the smartphone, in recent period, has been manufactured almost entirely in China.

Google was yet to react to the news at the time of writing this report. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the development.

The news comes three weeks after Bloomberg reported that Apple is planning to begin manufacturing iPhone 14 in India, about two months after its release out of China.

Apple has been working with suppliers to ramp up manufacturing in India and the first iPhone 14s from the country are likely to be finished in late October or November, following the initial September release, persons privy to the development told Bloomberg.

Apple's Taiwan-based supplier Foxconn has studied the process of shipping items from China and assembling the iPhone 14 at its plant outside southern Indian city of Chennai, it reported.

The company is looking at options after Beijing's clashes with Washington and lockdowns across the country disrupted production, according to the report.

India and other countries such as Mexico and Vietnam are becoming increasingly important to contract manufacturers supplying American brands as they try to diversify production away from China.

Earlier, the US was considering limiting shipments of American chipmaking equipment to memory chip makers in China in a bid to halt China's semiconductor sector advances and protect US companies.

If US President Joe Biden's administration proceeds with the move, it could also hurt South Korean memory chip juggernauts Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and SK Hynix Inc, which have big factories in the country.