Apple is planning to open four new retail stores in India and has begun manufacturing the iPhone 16 Pro models domestically, the company said as it deepens its presence in the world’s second-largest smartphone market.
The U.S. tech giant plans to launch stores in Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi-NCR, and Mumbai, building on its first two Indian outlets opened in Mumbai and New Delhi last year.
“We are thrilled to build our teams as we plan to open more stores in India, because we are inspired by the creativity and passion of our customers across this country,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail, in a statement. “We can’t wait for them to have even more opportunities to discover and shop for our amazing products and services, and connect with our extraordinary, knowledgeable team members.”
She did not provide specific timelines for the new store openings.
Apple also confirmed that it has started producing its entire iPhone 16 lineup, including Pro models, in India. The company began manufacturing iPhones in the country in 2017, starting with the SE model.
The moves come as Apple seeks to diversify its production away from China and tap into India’s growing smartphone market.
Apple’s push to shift iPhone production to India is, however, progressing slower than previously forecast, J.P. Morgan analysts said in a report last month. Current iPhone production in India is estimated at 10-15% of total output, the bank said. The iPhone-maker briefly breached the double-digit market share in the Indian smartphone market last year, but has since fallen back to single digits since.
The bank expects 20-25% of iPhones to be made in India by 2027. Previous 2022 forecast projected reaching this level by 2025.
In India, the iPhone assembly margins are lower than in China “due to sub-optimal operating scale and the early stage of the learning curve, which have more than offset the lower labor cost (almost 25-50% of China’s), the investment bank said.
Apple’s business in India, the world’s most populous nation, is nonetheless on rise. The company’s revenue in India jumped 42% year-on-year in 2023 to $8.7 billion, Morgan Stanley said earlier this year. iPhone shipments in India grew 39% year-on-year in 2023 to 9.2 million units, making it iPhone’s fifth largest smartphone market.
India’s iPhone business in 2023 was larger than any standalone country in the European Union, Morgan Stanley added.