Apple is all set to unveil the latest-generation iPhones on September 12 this month. The company has sent out invites for the event scheduled to be held at the company’s Apple Park headquarters in California. The invite features a Thanos snap-like graphic accompanied by the word “Wonderlust”. While the event will also see the launch of new Apple Watch and may new MacBook or AirPods; the Apple iPhone 15 series will certainly be the centerpiece of the event.
As for India, new iPhones have been launching in India in the first wave itself for almost 5 years now, starting with Apple’s tenth-anniversary iPhone, iPhone X. Apple iPhone X was the first-ever iPhone to launch in India on the same date as its global launch. Since then, largely all iPhones have gone on sale in India at the same time as in the US. This year seems to be no different. Apple fans can expect to buy iPhone 15 series almost at the same time as the fans in the US and other parts of the world where the devices launch in the first wave.
Ready for a new milestone with iPhone 15
However, what may be the big change this time is the timing of the ‘made-in-India’ iPhone 15. According to a report in Economic Times, Apple is aiming for a new milestone in the country with the launch of its latest model. The US smartphone major is reportedly working towards unveiling the iPhone 15, made in Foxconn’s Chennai unit, mid-September – narrowing the lag with the global launch to a few days, if not a simultaneous reveal in India. The report quotes people aware of the matter.
In 2022, Foxconn’s factory in Chennai started manufacturing iPhone 14 within 10 days of the global launch, while it took around a month for made-in-India iPhones to reach the market. This year, the gap, if any, is going to be a few days, as all preparations for mass production of iPhone 15 are well underway. Trial production of the iPhone 15 reportedly started in China in June, at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory. Components started coming into Foxconn’s Indian facilities around the same time.
Exports likely to start in December 2023
Apple is planning the India-made iPhone 15 series devices to initially cater to the local market as the demand is expected to surge in India during the festive season. Post December, the company may reportedly start iPhone 15 exports, including to Europe and the US.
India accounts for 7% of Apple’s global production, from less than 1% prior to the start of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones in 2021. In the June quarter of FY24, iPhone exports from India crossed Rs 20,000 crore, or roughly half of what it had achieved in all of FY23 and a surge of nearly five times on-year. The iPhone is ranked as the single largest contributor, constituting 35% of all electronics exports and 66% of total mobile exports in the first quarter of FY24.
