After months of negotiations with the Indian government, Apple is finally ready to start making iPhones in the world’s second most populous nation.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, this new development could begin in India within the next two months. Taiwanese contract manufacturer, Wistron Corp will likely start making iPhone 6 and 6S models here in the next four to six weeks at its plant in Bangalore according to an official of the southern state of Karnataka where the tech hub is located.
He also said it will add Apple’s cheapest iPhone model, the SE, to its assembly line in about three months. The iPhone SE, which some online retailers now sell for as low as $330, is still out of reach of most Indian consumers.
This move is said to boost the company’s chances of gaining a foothold in the fast-growing market. But the real reason Apple is doing this is iPhones are currently simply too expensive for Indians, a potentially huge market for Apple. Manufacturing locally would allow cutting as much as $100 off the price of iPhones, a lot of it due to import taxes in India.