Apple starts manufacturing its most affordable smartphone iPhone SE in India

Cupertino-based Apple, Inc. has confirmed that it has started producing the iPhone SE (2020) in India. The US tech giant's cheapest iPhone will be locally manufactured at the Wistron facility in Karnataka.

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Speaking on Apple's latest move, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, "Apple's latest and most affordable smartphone iPhone SE is now being exported from India. Its production started in record time from Bengaluru facility, notwithstanding the disruptions brought by COVID-19. We are committed to developing India as an electronics manufacturing hub."

The local manufacturing would help Apple to do away from import duty of 20 percent that phone makers pay for importing their models from other countries.

The prices for iPhone SE has already been reduced to Rs 35,999 for the 64GB base variant from Rs 42,500 on some ecommerce platforms in India. The iPhone SE (2020) was launched in April globally, including in India. It is the cheapest iPhone from the Cupertino-based company, that sports a smaller screen of 4.7-inch, Touch ID, and wireless charging.

“iPhone SE packs our most powerful chip into our most popular size at our most affordable price, and we're excited to be making it in India for our local customers,” Apple said in a statement shared with YourStory.

Earlier this month, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad revealed in a press conference that Apple's contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron applied for a $6.64 billion scheme under the Indian government's production-linked incentive (PLI) plan.

Previously, Apple had been manufacturing other iPhone models in India, including iPhone 11, iPhone 7, iPhone XR, iPhone 6S, and now iPhone SE (2017) and iPhone SE (2020).

According to market experts, Apple's move will not only benefit Indian users to buy iPhones at cheaper rates, but the US-tech giant will also be assembling more iPhones in India that would help the company to reduce its dependency on China-based manufacturing plants.