Despite Donald Trump’s repeated rhetoric that U.S. companies have to produce goods at home or pay more taxes, Apple seems to be having other ideas.
A person familiar with the talks said that Apple executives met with Indian government officials to discuss a plan of making iPhones in the southern city of Bangalore on Wednesday, reports CNNMoney.
The commerce ministry of India confirmed that the meeting took place but failed to comment on what was discussed. Apple said that it appreciated the constructive and open dialogue they have had with the government regarding further expansion of its local operations. All these were said in a statement but would not go into further details.
The plan to set up an iPhone production plant in India’s main tech hub was first reported by the Times of India. The newspaper reported that the factory would be constructed with Taiwan-based manufacturer Wistron.
The iPhone marker is trying hard to increase its presence in the rapid-growing south Asian country as stagnation of the global sales occurs. This was a year ago when it applied to open retail stores based in India.
CEO Tim Cook weighed in last May when he paid a visit to Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
India is pressing together a “Make in India” campaign to attract companies such as Apple. Modi’s government has taken several steps for promoting foreign investment which include partial exemptions to a rule that abroad firms much source 30% of raw materials locally.
So far this has stopped granting additional concessions to Apple, according to local media reports.
Kiranjeet Kaur ( a research analyst at consulting firm IDC) said that the ideal thing for the government would be that they treat everyone fairly.
Apple currently trades iPhones and other products in India through local cartels who distribute the products, but it lags far much behind Samsung (SSNLF) and Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Lenovo in terms of market share.
The potential payment is large. There are more than 300 million people using smartphones in India. This is an 18% increase from the previous year- according to research technology firm Counterpoint. It is projected to outdo the U.S as the world’s second largest market for smartphones in the year 2017.
