Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company Pegatron has become the third contract manufacturer of Apple to open its facility in India in the southern city of Chennai to manufacture iPhone models. Pegatron is planning to invest Rs 1,100 crore with employment generation for as many as 14,000 people with the new iPhone facility, the media has reported.
The Pegatron facility was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin at Mahindra World City in Chennai in the presence of Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Earlier in 2021, the Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government in this regard.
“The fact that Pegatron has started production within 18 months of signing the MoU highlights the investor-friendly climate in Tamil Nadu. China is where new cell phone models are manufactured in bulk. We are working to change that and make Tamil Nadu such a manufacturing hub,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was quoted as saying in a statement.
It should be noted that the other two contract manufacturers of iPhones in India are both Taiwan-based Foxconn and Wistron.
Meanwhile, the tech giant is likely to make one out of four iPhone devices in India by 2025, JP Morgan analysts recently said. Apple is moving production away from China amid rising geopolitical tensions and strict coronavirus lockdowns in the country.
The brokerage expects Apple to move about 5 per cent of iPhone 14 production from late 2022 to India, which is the world's second-biggest smartphone market after China, says a report by news agency Reuters.
The locally assembled iPhone 14 models would give a big boost to Apple's Make In India plans and serve a big portion of the country's iPhone buying population, market analysts told ABP Live ahead of the launch of the iPhone 14 lineup.
The new iPhone 14 series went on sale in India on Friday (September 16) where the newly launched iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max became available via multiple sales channels. The iPhone 14 Plus which has been introduced this year instead of an iPhone mini model would be available in October.