According to the Financial Times, which cites sources “familiar with the matter,” Apple plans to assemble in India all iPhones intended for the US by the end of 2026. The majority of Apple’s iPhones are currently made in China, but Chinese-made products have become a toxic asset for US import.
The US government has imposed a 145 percent tariff on goods from China. While smartphones are included in a 90-day reprieve, announced in early April, President Trump has indicated this exclusion is indeed a temporary one. Ready to pay $2,949 for a base storage iPhone 17 Pro Max?
Apple’s supposed shifting of its manufacturing to India is an insurance policy against such chaos in the future, but it did not begin here. In December 2024, we wrote about Apple’s growing reliance on India for manufacturing as a bulwark against growing US-China tensions.
Indian production of iPhones commenced in 2017, starting with the lower-cost iPhone SE. The country began producing flagship-model launch iPhones in 2023.
Despite being the better part of a decade into Indian iPhone manufacturing, this latest alleged shift in strategy still represents a very costly turbocharging of its efforts—and likely at least a doubling of output from Apple’s Indian production plants. WIRED approached Apple for comment, but had not received a response at time of publishing.
How Many Indian iPhones?
“Our estimates say that Apple produced around 40 to 43 million [iPhones] in India last year,” says Navkendar Singh, associate vice president at IDC India. “About 12 or 13 million were consumed in the India market entirely, and the rest were exported out.”
More than 60 million iPhones are sold in the US each year, where the series commands a 57 percent smartphone market share, according to some estimates. “So about 80 to 85 million [iPhones] they will need to produce in India,” says Singh, should Apple want to satisfy US demand at current levels while also serving local Indian market demand.
This expansion does not solely rely on Apple’s investments. As in all of Apple’s major production efforts, any Indian expansion will involve partners, primarily Tata Electronics, Foxconn, and Pegatron.
“Tata is completely running at capacity right now,” says Singh. Tata is the primary force behind Indian iPhone manufacture at present. It operates an assembly plant in Tamil Nadu, in the country’s south. It acquired Wistron’s iPhone-manufacturing Karnataka facility in 2023 and, in January 2025, closed on a majority 60 percent stake in Taiwanese company Pegatron’s Indian operation.
This in turn represents a consolidation of Indian iPhone production being stewarded by an Indian company, Tata Electronics. Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron are all Taiwanese companies, despite their global reach and importance.
Trouble at the Factory
Apple’s Tata-led production has not been entirely smooth. In 2023, Tata’s Hosur factory, which produced iPhone casings, reportedly had a yield rate of just 50 percent, with half of the components failing Apple’s rigorous quality checks. This is a very low yield rate, and it highlights the importance of a skilled and efficient manufacturing operation.
“There just isn’t a sense of urgency,” a former Apple engineer told the Financial Times, speaking on Apple’s Indian operations in 2023. Apple’s 2025–2026 increase in Indian manufacturing will be a test of whether that situation has changed and by how much.
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