Apple unlikely to make iPads, Macs here; eyes production of AirPods

Apple has no plans to start manufacturing iPads and Mac personal computers (PCs) in India but is exploring options to start making AirPods in the country, people familiar with the matter said.

Belying wide expectations that the US tech major plans to locally produce all its other major products in India as well, the Cupertino-based company will focus on expanding iPhone manufacturing while increasing production of components in the South Asian nation.

As per officials aware of the details, Apple CEO Tim Cook, during his recent visit to India, told the government that Apple wants to do more in India, but did not specify details.

"While the finer details of Apple manufacturing were not discussed during Cook's visit, Apple has not expressed interest in making Mac PCs here (in India)," said an official, who didn't want to be quoted.

However, the government is hopeful that Apple might come onboard for Mac manufacturing as part of the revised and sweetened the PLI scheme for IT hardware, with increased sops, which will be notified soon. But what queers the pitch is Apple saw a sharp slowdown in its Mac sales in India as well as globally in the January-March quarter, with the outlook not that rosy either, said industry executives.



And India seems to have missed the bus in terms of iPads as well.

Apple had tried to shift a part of the iPad manufacturing to India in 2021. But since the vendor was a wholly owned Chinese firm - BYD, it failed to get approvals from the government, and moved to Vietnam instead last year, another official said. In fact, back then BYD Electronics had also applied for the production-linked incentive (PLI) for smartphone manufacturing but was not selected.

Queries sent to BYD Electronics and Apple remained unanswered till the time of going to press.