Apple Supplier Wistron to Manufacture iPhones in India

This is mostly interesting because of the fairly extreme manufacturing processes involved in building an iPhone. I'm not an expert, but it does not seem to be a product you can just crank out easily on an existing line. It seems like the outlay to build/set up the factory would be huge, and would take quite a while to ramp up.

Maybe if all the parts are from suppliers elsewhere and they're just assembling in India it's not as much expense and overhead to tool out the factory? Or maybe it's really not as hard as I'm imagining and/or there's already a lot of infrastructure in place.

Either way, it seems like Apple must be expecting to sell a huge number of devices or it wouldn't be worth the investment.

I imagine from a supply chain perspective, if the product is of identical quality and the cost of production is comparable, the more companies and locations making your stuff the better. Lets you pit manufacturers against each other, and gives you backup options if your main partner has problems for whatever reason.

Foxconn and Pegatron are primarily just assemblers. Most of the products come from around the world. That's why it is feasible to return some manufacturing to USA where it would be a huge boost for engineering jobs, even if highly automated. Here's a fairly recent list, and people may be surprised how many parts are made in USA or made by US companies, but outsourced for production.

Where are Apple products made: Which companies make the iPhone - and where?



* Accelerometer: Bosch in Germany. Invensense in the United States.
* Audio Chipsets and Codec: Cirrus Logic in the United States (outsourced for manufacturing).
* Baseband processor: Qualcomm in the United States (outsourced for manufacturing).
* Batteries: Samsung in South Korea. Huizhou Desay Battery in China.
* Cameras: Sony in Japan. OmniVision in the United States produces the front-facing FaceTime camera chip but subcontracts TMSC (in Taiwan) for manufacturing.
* Chipsets and Processors: Samsung in South Korea and TSMC in Taiwan. Alongside their partner GlobalFoundries in the United States.
* Controller Chips: PMC Sierra and Broadcom Corp in the United States (outsourced for manufacturing).
* Display: Japan Display and Sharp in Japan. LG Display in South Korea.
* DRAM: TSMC in Taiwan. SK Hynix in South Korea.
* eCompass: Alps Electric in Japan.
* Fingerprint sensor authentication: Authentec makes it in China but outsources it to Taiwan for manufacturing.
* Flash memory: Toshiba in Japan and Samsung in South Korea.
* Gyroscope: STMicroelectronics in France and Italy.
* Inductor coils (audio): TDK in Japan.
* Main Chassis Assembly: Foxconn and Pegatron in China.
* Mixed-signal chips (such as NFC): NXP in Netherlands.
* Plastic Constructions (for the iPhone 5c): Hi-P and Green Point in Singapore.
* Radio Frequency Modules: Win Semiconductors (module manufacturers Avago and RF Micro Devices) in Taiwan. Avago technologies and TriQuint Semiconductor in the United States. Qualcomm in the United States for LTE connectivity.
* Screen and Glass (for the display): Corning (Gorilla Glass) in the United States. GT Advanced Technologies produces the sapphire crystals in the screens.
* Semiconductors: Texas Instruments, Fairchild and Maxim Integrated in the United States.
* Touch ID sensor: TSMC and Xintec in Taiwan.
* Touchscreen Controller: Broadcom in the United States (outsourced for manufacturing).
* Transmitter and Amplification Modules: Skyworks and Qorvo in the United States (outsourced for manufacturing).

I wonder how many here will complain about India's protectionist policies?

I wonder how many here have the slightest idea what that means. :D

India and innovation are words that seldom go together.

Cheap to borrow, sure. Innovative, nah. If they were innovative there wouldn't be dead bodies floating down the Ganges.

You're ignorance proves my point. :) Let people like you keep thinking that and then one day in 20 years when you look at all the innovation coming out of india and the lack there of from America people will like you will regret being ignorant.

By your point...Have you heard of the violence in Chicago? There are dead bodies on the streets. You can get shot at while just driving down the highway..

Some people (some Americans) appear to believe that everywhere else is either third world or inferior in some other way. As if Indians would struggle to put iPhones together whereas Americans are all educated craftsmen and engineers. Lol.

Offshore programmers are mostly used for inexpensive coding of projects designed in the US. (If an offshore programmer is really good, they're often imported to the US where they can engage in advanced research.)

I worked with offshore teams and there are some really good programmers. Trust me there is nothing like inexpensive coding. Weak link in the architecture or code will be a disaster. Every line of code needs attention to detail for longterm reliability and scalability. Not many people who are really good can be imported to US which is reason we have offshore development centers.

India(Generally offshoring happens to India) produces 1.5 Million graduates per year in Science & Technology and that is large pool of talent for the companies. Companies can really choose some brightest brains from that pool and it is impossible to bring all that talent to US due to various limitations.

I have taken India as an example because I don't think there is another country in world which produces more than 1.5 million graduates per year in science and technology and that is one of the reasons most of the companies have their R&D centers in India. Yes they do advanced research and also build many advanced applications.

India and innovation are words that seldom go together.

Cheap to borrow, sure. Innovative, nah. If they were innovative there wouldn't be dead bodies floating down the Ganges.

Do you know India and Vietnam so called third world countries have the top ranked dynamic cities. Innovation and Technology are the key parameters in this ranking. They are competing with Silicon valley.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/these-are-the-most-dynamic-cities-in-the-world-and-they-re-not-the-ones-you-d-expect/

People have no idea on how fast the world is progressing. Please update!!!