Tech Telecom

Apple may well be planning to make iPhones in India through the contract manufacturing route, initially partnering with Wistron, with industry insiders saying the Cupertino-based smartphone maker can begin with accessories and repairs before taking the bigger plunge.

While Apple declined to comment, Taipei-headquartered Wistron said, “We are unable to make any comments on our clients and products currently,” when asked specifically about Apple’s plans to make in India.

Wistron is one of the global contract manufacturers and was hired by Apple in 2016. The company reportedly assembles iPhones at three plants in China. Industry insiders say that while assembly of phones may begin with Wistron, Apple could look at taking the manufacturing to deeper levels in the coming years, with larger players like Foxconn or Pegatron. Foxconn is Apple’s largest supplier of iPhones.

This will be Apple’s second big announcement for Bengaluru. In May, Apple announced a design and development accelerator in the city to grow the iOS developer community and also to guide Indian developers to leverage Apple’s programming language Swift and build apps for Apple TV and Apple Watch. The facility will open early next year.

The revenue numbers speak for themselves. Apple India clocked robust sales touching Rs 9,997 crore in the 2016 financial year, up 56% from Rs 6,472 crore, previously. The company’s net profit grew 21% to Rs 294 crore during the same period with deeper retail penetration and lower prices for older iPhone models that garnered a huge user base. An email sent to Apple didn’t elicit a response till the time of going to press.

Apple has published job openings on its portal for a few positions at its OEM’s factory in Bengaluru like operations program manager and product quality manager.