Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn has won an order to make AirPods for Apple and plans to make a plant in India to produce the wireless earphones, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The deal will see Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and assembler of around 70 of all iPhones, become an AirPod supplier for the first time and underlines sweats by the crucial Apple supplier to further diversify product down from China.
AirPods are presently made by a range of Chinese suppliers. The rearmost development comes less than a fortnight after Foxconn president Young Liu signed a memorandum of understanding with the Telangana government for setting up an electronics manufacturing installation in Hyderabad. The AirPods installation is anticipated to be set up by Foxconn’s arm, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, the report added. TOI had before quoted Telangana electronics director Sujai Karampuri as saying the Telangana government was in conversations with Foxconn for a 200-acre point in Ranga Reddy quarter. The Reuters report said Foxconn officers had been mooting internally for months “about whether to assemble AirPods due to a fairly lower profit perimeter”. India has come to one of Apple’s most important requests and an arising manufacturing mecca over the last couple of times or so.
The world’s most precious company lately conducted a major transnational operation reshuffle to make India a separate deals region, italicizing the surging significance of the country for the iPhone maker. India has surfaced as a major volition to China for Apple to manufacture in, and it has been directing its suppliers to set up shop in India. India, on its part, has been giving room to Apple, approving 14 Chinese suppliers lately. Apple exported iPhones worth $ 1 Bn from India in December 2022, or 81 of total smartphone exports by value during the month from India. Foxconn has been one of Apple’s most visionary manufacturers when it comes to manufacturing in India. Before this month, media reports suggested that the Taiwanese contract manufacturer was set to invest between $ 700 Mn-$ 1 Bn in India.