Apple will soon start manufacturing the iPhone 12 in India for domestic and export purposes, at the Foxconn facility in Tamil Nadu. Unconfirmed sources suggest that the company is planning to move about 7-10% of its production to India in a move to reduce its dependency on China as a manufacturing hub.

The iPhone 12 series that includes a total of four models, was launched in India last year in October, a few weeks after the global announcement. It is expected that Apple will take advantage of the Indian government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Apart from the expected partnering with Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron are also going to be the production partners of the iPhone 12. While Apple has not responded to the queries, Business Standard reports that the Wistron facility near Bengaluru was also supposed to manufacture the iPhone 12 mini, however, a final decision has not been made. It is possible that the weak demand for the smaller iPhone could be a factor. As for Pegatron, the manufacturing unit will most likely be ready during the middle of 2021.

Apple’s Indian production partners currently manufacture the iPhone SE, iPhone XR, and the iPhone 11. Just last month, there was news that the company could also start manufacturing the iPad in India. The government had reportedly approved a proposal to offer an incentive of about 1.02 billion dollars to give a push to local manufacturing and exports of IT products. The PLI scheme also provides manufacturers cashback of between 1% to 4% of additional sales of locally made goods over four years, with 2019-2020 as the base year. The production of the iPhone 12 and the iPad in India could potentially mean a price drop for customers in the country, as was the case with the iPhone SE and iPhone XR. Having said that, there is no confirmation as to when the ‘Made in India’ iPhone 12 or iPad will make their way to stores. There's also no word on if these plans involve the upcoming iPhone 13 at this stage.