If reading ‘made in India’ on the back of your favourite product fills your heart with pride, then we’ve got just the news for you. After launching the locally assembled iPhone SE in May last year, Apple India is ready to start selling India manufactured iPhone 6S models in July.
While the plans of iPhone 6S manufacturing in India were revealed in April, Wistron (Apple’s manufacturing partner in India) has started the commercial production of the model just a couple of weeks back. Interestingly, Apple was considering both the ‘6 series’ models (iPhone 6 and 6S) for Indian production but went with iPhone 6S due to its sales potential.
Like you, we were also expecting Apple to reduce the prices for iPhone 6S after localisation, but it turned out to be false hope. Apple has made it clear that the prices will remain the same, with the only price advantage coming in the form of protection against price increase with a change in policies like import duties.
“The made-in-India iPhone 6s will be only sold in India like iPhone SE since it will take time to scale up capacity. In fact, Apple will continue with the import of iPhone 6s until capacity improves. Hence, there will be no price correction for the locally manufactured units. The made-in-India iPhone 6s model will hit the stores soon,” confirmed an Apple executive.
Although the local manufacturing is not directly translating into price reduction, we still see the move as a testimony to Apple’s commitment to the Indian market. The more involved Apple is in its Indian operations, the better its prospects are in the country. There is no doubt that Apple India is far from getting its marketing and pricing right but at least, they are putting some safeguards in place against price surges due to government policies.
Source: The Economic Times
