India is in talks with Apple to start manufacturing iPads, according to two sources cited by CNBC. Cupertino is in discussions with officials about whether the factory near Chennai, Tamil Nadu, can take up the production of tablets, but no concrete plans have yet been made.
Since the pandemic began in early 2020, Apple has considered diversifying its factories to cut off its reliance on Chinese manufacturing. We’ve already seen the Indian factory take up AirPods and Beats production, as well as the vanilla iPhone 14, which was the first – until now the factory has only assembled older models.
Sources revealed that lack of highly skilled talent and people with expertise in building highly complex mobile devices is the main reason why Apple is hesitating to move iPad production to India.
Currently, only 10% of all iPhones are manufactured by the Foxconn factory in Chennai, with only 5% of all iPhone 14 units coming from this factory. The shift will be slow, but Apple will continue to expand its network of factories with production in Vietnam, Malaysia and even the United States.
