Foxconn’s plant near Chennai has started preparations to make iPhone 15 Plus, two industry executives aware of the plans said.
The company unveiled its latest iPhone series on Tuesday, loading it with a faster chip that offers better gaming and a new lighter titanium shell for the Pro models among other updates. It is also targeting to double its India sales next quarter, enticing buyers with the new launches and price cuts on iPhone 13 and 14 models, which should make the October-December a record sales quarter for Apple in India, said the people cited above.
‘Imports to meet festive demand’
The Cupertino-based company has already started commercial production of the iPhone 15 at the Foxconn plant, making it the first time an assembled-in-India iPhone will be sold right at the launch stage.However, the local iPhone 15 manufacturing capacity is still low and with the festive season around the corner, Apple will be importing the devices from its major production hub in China to meet demand, the executives said.”iPhone 15 Plus will be the next in line for assembling in India. It will take shape in October-December and will be the fastest manufacturing rollout for a higher-priced model in India,” one of the executives said. Apple already manufactures iPhone 14, 14 Plus and 13 models in India.
An email sent to Apple India remained unanswered till Wednesday press time.
Apple will import the iPhone 15 Plus model till production starts along with the ultra-premium iPhone Pro series. It has no plans to locally produce the iPhone Pro models. Hence, the company has factored in the 22% import duties on smartphones along with the rupee depreciation for its India pricing strategy.
This means the price of the new iPhones in India is among the highest globally.
“Still, Apple is expecting to double sales in India in the next quarter with these new launches, making it a record quarter for the company,” the executive said.
Apple has launched four new models – the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max – with prices starting from Rs 79,900 and going up to a record Rs 1,99,900.
India will feature in the first phase of the global availability, along with 40 other countries on September 22.
Older models to drive sales
Analysts said the company is going to end the calendar year with record shipments of iPhones driven by the new launches.
Navkendar Singh, associate vice president of market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC), said the older models such as the iPhone 13 and 14 will drive the majority of sales in India in the next quarter though the iPhone 15 will also contribute this year as existing consumers upgrade their handsets.
“Next quarter can be a record quarter for Apple in India in terms of sales,” he said.
Tarun Pathak, research director at tracker Counterpoint Market Research, said the share of a new iPhone to total iPhone sales in India will increase this year in the December quarter due to upgrade demand. “This will also push the iPhone average selling prices,” he said.
As per IDC data, Apple had shipped 4.5 million iPhones to India by July of this calendar year, up 60% year-on-year. The researcher estimated total shipments for this year will be 9 million-plus units as compared to 6.7 million in 2022. This is expected to take Apple’s share in the Indian smartphone market to 5% compared with 4% in 2022, as per Counterpoint Research.
