Apple may manufacture iPhones in India from April 2017

Apple is reportedly planning to manufacture iPhones for Indian consumers in the Silicon Valley of the country, Bengaluru.

Wistron, a Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer for Apple is setting up a facility in Peenya, the industrial hub of the city. The facility will begin production from April next year, industry sources told daily news outlet The Times of India. There has been no official word so far about the project.

The sources told TOI that Apple is quite serious about starting the assembly operations. The full manufacturing line is expected to begin sometime at the end of next year. The sources said, "Bangalore is being looked at seriously."

Apple has even posted job opening on its portal at its OEM's factory in Bengaluru for positions such as operations programme manager and product quality manager.

Taiwan-based OEM, Foxconn, was earlier expected to set up a manufacturing plant in the western state of Maharashtra. While there were reports suggesting the plant would make only Apple products, but sources say that Foxconn seems to have tied up with firms such as Xiaomi and OnePlus.

Setting up facility is not the first biggest announcement Apple made for India. In May this year the company said it would establish a Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru, which the company is calling as first-of-its-kind center to support developers creating mobile apps in India. The iOS App Design and Development Accelerator is expected in early 2017.

According to data shared by Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Apple sold 2.5 million iPhones in India from October 2015 to September 2016, marking a rise of more than 50% over the year-ago period. It made INR 9,997 crore (£1.19bn) in 2016 financial year, a 56% growth from INR 6,472 crore earlier.