Apple reshuffles management to focus more on India to boost sales of iPhones, iPads, other products
Apple will now focus more on India: Company emphasizing increasing business in India will make major changes in International Business Management
Apple Inc. Along with increasing its manufacturing in India, it is also planning to make major changes in its international business management. Not only this, the company now wants to focus more on India. Bloomberg told in one of its reports that a person associated with the company has informed about this.
According to sources, due to major changes in Apple's international business management, this will be the first time that India will become a separate sales region of the company. If this happens, India will become very important for Apple. People giving information about this have given this information to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity.
This step of Apple shows how strong India's credibility is getting in the world. The smallest to biggest companies in the world are also seeing their growth in India. This is the reason why many foreign companies are investing in India.
Apple's Vice President Hughes Aseman recently retired, who used to handle India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, East Europe and Africa. The company is promoting its head Ashish Chowdhary in India. Till now he used to report to Aseman, but will now report directly to Michael Fenger, Apple's head of product sales.
The company's total sales in India declined by 5% in the previous quarter, but its revenue reached a record level. Apple is also planning to open its first retail outlet in India later this year. Apple CEO Tim Cook had said that the company is focusing a lot on the Indian market.
Tim Cook said that work is being done in India in the same way as he had done earlier in China. Apple's annual revenue in China is about $ 75 billion, or Rs 6.15 lakh crore, which is Apple's largest sales region after America and Europe.
For Apple, India is becoming very important for product development. Many big suppliers of Apple are turning to India. Not only this, but Apple is also planning to set up an iPhone manufacturing plant in India with its manufacturing partner Foxconn.
The new changes will affect Apple's management structure, but not the way it reports regional sales in its results. In those statements, the company includes India as part of the Europe category, along with the Middle East and Africa. Apart from this, it also tells four more regions, which include America, Greater China, Japan and the Rest of Asia Pacific.
Many people left the company before the assembly. Apple's vice president who was the chief of subscription services resigned earlier this year. Apart from this, the Chief of Cloud will say goodbye to Apple next month. Last year, the chief of the company's industrial design, purchase, information systems and online store left the company.
Recently, there was news that Foxconn Technology Group has decided to build a new plant in Telangana, India to increase local production. Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn will set up the plant at Kongara Kalan in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana.
By setting up this plant, the company will provide jobs to more than 1 lakh people. According to reports, Foxconn will invest around $700 million (about Rs 5.7 thousand crores) to set up this plant.
Manufacturing from China is being shifted to India due to rising tensions between the US and China. After geopolitical tension and the Corona epidemic, other American tech giants including Apple are working on expanding their manufacturing facilities outside China as well.
With the construction of this plant in India, about 1 lakh jobs will be created. The company's massive iPhone assembly complex in Zhengzhou, China, currently employs about 200,000 workers. However, this number increases during the peak production season. This investment of Foxconn in India is its biggest single investment to date.
Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with the iPhone SE. It has three Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) partners – Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron. After iPhone SE, manufacturing of the iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 was also done in India. Foxconn's plant is in Sriperumbudur near Chennai.
All three contract manufacturers of Apple are part of the Rs 41,000 crore Production-Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) of the Government of India. It is only after this scheme that iPhone manufacturing has picked up in India. In 2020, the Government of India launched the PLI Scheme. Through this scheme, companies from outside countries get an opportunity to take advantage of local manufacturing, as well as earn incentives for it.
Most iPhones are assembled in China. Is it because of the low cost of labour? According to a report by Investopedia, the average wage of an iPhone worker is $10 per hour. Top earners earn approximately $27 per hour.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the reason for manufacturing in China is not the low labour cost. If that were the case, Apple could make its phones at much cheaper locations. The main reason, according to Cook, is the skill required in tooling engineering. They claim that the specific skill set is no longer available in the US, but China has the expertise.
iPhones are available at the lowest prices in the US. Despite manufacturing in China, iPhones are sold more expensively than in the US. This is due to currency fluctuations and the high value-added tax imposed in China. Similarly, despite manufacturing in India, the iPhone is sold much more expensive than in the US. After America, Hong Kong, and Japan are such places where it is available cheap.