Tata Group will make iPhone in India. The deal to acquire the factory of Apple supplier Wistron was finalized on Friday. The board of directors of Wistron Corp approved this. After this approval, Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajiv Chandrashekhar said that manufacturing of iPhone will start within two and a half years.
After Tata's takeover, India will get its first domestic production line for Apple products. A deal has been signed with Tata Group company Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL) to sell Wistron Infocom Manufacturing (India) Private Limited for $125 million (about Rs 1000 crore).
Taiwanese company Wistron entered the Indian market in 2008, when the company used to provide repair facilities for many devices. After this, in 2017, the company expanded its operations and started production of iPhones for Apple. More than 10,000 workers work in this Wistron plant.
According to a media report, Wistron took this decision to sell its iPhone assembly factory in India due to challenges in earning profit under Apple's terms. The company had to struggle a lot to earn profits as the only iPhone assembly provider in India.
Currently, Wistron's Indian plant is manufacturing iPhones in its 8 production lines. After Tata's acquisition, Wistron will be completely out of the Indian market, as it is the only plant of the company producing Apple products in India.
Last year, California-based company Apple had announced plans to shift about 25% of its global production to India due to the dispute between China and America. Of the three Taiwanese firms that assemble Apple products, only Wistron is leaving India. Whereas, Foxconn and Pegatron have increased their production lines in India.