{"id":1295872,"date":"2025-06-03T10:33:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/?p=1295872"},"modified":"2025-06-03T10:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:04:28","slug":"indians-make-iphone-10x-slower-than-chinese-reveals-book-by-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/indians-make-iphone-10x-slower-than-chinese-reveals-book-by-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Indians Make iPhone 10X Slower Than Chinese, Reveals Book By Journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Patrick McGee, former Apple correspondent for the <em>Financial Times<\/em>, takes a critical look at Apple&#8217;s India expansion in his latest book <em>Apple In China<\/em>. Though India has become a key iPhone assembly hub, McGee highlights how its growth still trails far behind China\u2019s early performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"545\" src=\"https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-1024x545.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1295877\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-1024x545.png 1024w, https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-768x409.png 768w, https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-1536x818.png 1536w, https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-03-at-10.32.46\u202fAM-2048x1091.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Comparing The Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between <strong>2016 and 2023<\/strong>, India\u2019s iPhone output grew from <strong>zero to 15 million units<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstoday.in\/latest\/economy\/story\/india-builds-iphones-10x-slower-than-china-did-book-reveals-apples-deep-assembly-dilemma-478670-2025-06-02\">contributing<\/a> about <strong>7% to global shipments<\/strong>. In contrast, <strong>China jumped from zero to 153 million units<\/strong> in its first seven years (2006\u20132013)\u2014<strong>ten times India\u2019s current pace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even as India now assembles flagship iPhones and began making <strong>Pro models by 2024<\/strong>, McGee warns against equating scale with independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>India\u2019s Role Still Limited to FATP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple\u2019s India operations are largely limited to <strong>Final Assembly, Test, and Pack (FATP)<\/strong>. Most <strong>critical components are imported from China<\/strong> and assembled locally by partners like <strong>Wistron and Foxconn<\/strong>. McGee quotes an Apple engineer joking, iPhones are \u201cassembled in China, disassembled there, and then sent to China for reassembly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This shows the <strong>deep dependence on China\u2019s supply chain<\/strong>, which limits India\u2019s strategic leverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>India\u2019s Delayed Takeoff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although <strong>Apple opened its online store in India in 2020<\/strong> and physical stores by 2023, it lagged <strong>15 years behind China<\/strong> in retail presence. Apple began with <strong>entry-level iPhone SEs<\/strong> in India and gradually shifted to flagship production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A major push began <strong>after the 2022 Shanghai lockdown<\/strong>, which prompted Apple to diversify away from China. Still, <strong>Tim Cook\u2019s 2018 prediction<\/strong> that India could follow \u201ca China-like trajectory\u201d hasn\u2019t fully materialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenges and the Road Ahead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGee writes that <strong>India\u2019s government was less eager than Beijing<\/strong> to relax rules. Early policies like the <strong>30% local sourcing mandate<\/strong> slowed Apple\u2019s progress. While some rules were eased in 2017, full supply chain maturity is still years away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A former senior Apple engineer quoted in the book says the <strong>pace of development remains slow<\/strong>, and having dual assembly points in India and China <strong>adds complexity, not resilience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple reportedly aims for India to become fully capable\u2014but <strong>real supply chain independence may take 5\u201310 more years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/05\/16\/apple-in-china-book-convincingly-argues-that-the-iphone-could-be-killed-overnight\/\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patrick McGee, former Apple correspondent for the Financial Times, takes a critical look at Apple&#8217;s India expansion in his latest book Apple In China. Though India has become a key iPhone assembly hub, McGee highlights how its growth still trails far behind China\u2019s early performance. Comparing The Numbers Between 2016 and 2023, India\u2019s iPhone output [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":1295877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[7951,7952,677],"class_list":["post-1295872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-apple-in-china","tag-book","tag-iphones"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Indians Make iPhone 10X Slower Than Chinese, Reveals Book By Journalist - Trak.in - Indian Business of Tech, Mobile &amp; Startups<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trak.in\/stories\/indians-make-iphone-10x-slower-than-chinese-reveals-book-by-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indians Make iPhone 10X Slower Than Chinese, Reveals Book By Journalist - Trak.in - Indian Business of Tech, Mobile &amp; Startups\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patrick McGee, former Apple correspondent for the Financial Times, takes a critical look at Apple&#8217;s India expansion in his latest book Apple In China. 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