In an effort to diversify its supply chain and manufacture more products outside of China, Apple this year plans to ramp up production of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices in India and Vietnam, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.
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iPad production in Vietnam is set to start as early as the middle of 2021, and the shift will mark the first time that a large number of devices will be built outside of China.
At the same time, Apple is increasing iPhone production in India, and as soon as this quarter, factories in the country will begin manufacturing the new iPhone 12 models.
Production for smart speakers, earphones, and computers is increasing in Southeast Asia. Apple suppliers in Vietnam will expand production capacity for the HomePod mini, which is already being manufactured in the country, and some production of the Mac mini has been relocated to Malaysia. Apple last year also started assembling some of the AirPods Pro in Vietnam.
Late last year, reports suggested Apple was asking Foxconn to move iPad and MacBook assembly from China to Vietnam amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, and Foxconn has now been granted a license to construct a $270 million plant in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Giang.
Apple and other major tech companies have been aiming to reduce their dependence on China due to rising labor costs and trade tensions between the U.S. and China, plus the pandemic led to major supply chain issues that further sparked efforts to diversify.
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Top Rated Comments
Indian employees are not that "happy" either...
Personally i don't care, what i really want is software quality and that's made in the USA...
China is last century. It just took a while to wring the last few drops from the orange.
If the goal is to maximize profits via stable supply chains that reside in friendly host countries, Vietnam and India are far better bets than China.
It takes almost decades long vision to see it, shift the logistics, build the skilled labor base, the agreements with local governments, local infrastructure, etc etc to effectively make the switch.
China will continue to be a major player in Apple production in the foreseeable future. But given both the recent sabre rattling by the PRC regime (past five years or so), their willingness to engage in corporate espionage, and the potential backlash from all that has been the pandemic (I will not get into it, as this is not a political discussion, nor do I want it to become that. But to ignore the potential for blowback on China from the Pandemic is to sink your head into an ostrich hole. The potential is huge.) it makes sense for Apple to plan their exfiltration from reliance on China for the majority of it's manufacturing.
Smart move, Tim. Smart move.