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Newest iPhone 14 Will be Produced by Apple in India

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As a result of economic restrictions and geopolitical tensions that have disrupted supply chains for numerous industries, Apple Inc. said on Monday that it will manufacture its most recent iPhone 14 in India. This month, Apple announced its newest line-up of iPhones.

They will cost the same as last year’s versions but have better cameras, quicker processors, and longer-lasting batteries.

India is the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China, but Apple iPhone sales have found it difficult to win a significant market share versus less expensive devices from rivals.

The Cupertino, California-based company’s statement fits in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for local manufacturing, which has been a major objective for his administration since he took office in 2014.

The tech corporation placed a significant wager on India, where it initially started assembling its iPhone SE in 2017 and has subsequently done so for a number of other iPhone models. Apple launched its online store for India two years ago, but the corporation has reportedly put off plans for an Indian flagship store.

Foxconn, a significant iPhone manufacturer with operations on the outskirts of Chennai, a city in southern India, will distribute the most recent model.

According to a JP Morgan study cited by the Press Trust of India news agency, Apple is set to move roughly 5% of its iPhone 14 production to India starting later this year, increasing it to 25% by 2025.

By 2025, researchers predict that, compared to the current 5%, close to a quarter of all Apple products will be produced outside of China. According to the analysis, supply chain risks like the strict COVID-19 lockdowns observed in China are likely what will spur these relocation attempts, which will last for the next two to three years.

The majority of Apple Inc.’s smartphones and tablets are assembled by third parties with factories in China, but after multiple shutdowns to combat COVID-19 disrupted its global flow of products, the company began asking them to consider moving some production to Southeast Asia or other locations in 2020.

Although Apple hasn’t provided any information, news reports claim the corporation planned to establish assembly lines for wireless headphones and tablet computers in Vietnam.

Due to rising labour costs and other expenses, as well as the difficulty for foreign executives to visit China due to anti-COVID-19 travel restrictions, other businesses are maintaining or increasing manufacturing in China to serve the domestic market while moving export-oriented work to other nations.

Staying in The Technology Race and Avoiding Pitfalls

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Technology is the continually developing result of accumulated knowledge and application in all techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in industrial production and scientific research.

It is vital for law firms and in house counsel that they are at the forefront when advising on the specifics and legalities of the technology supply chain, which increasingly relies on mining raw materials for use within the manufacturing process of ‘smart’ products. However, an acute awareness of the barriers is also essential.

Given the increase in protectionist policies, and the inherent link that exists between these and mining essential raw materials, it has never been more important that in house teams work closely with their advisers to anticipate market changes and implement strategies to manoeuvre through what can be difficult events and circumstances.

What is becoming evident, as set out in the report, is that there is a startling correlation between countries that pursue digitally protectionist policies as well those that are protectionist in relation to their natural resources – in particular China, Russia, India, Vietnam, Argentina and Turkey – six key global players in both areas of the economy.

Given that countries like these are the very same which house the essential raw materials that need to be mined to fuel the development of technology, it is crucial to understand how to anticipate the impact of such behaviour on the technology supply chain.

General Counsel could be forgiven for focusing more on the operational and trading aspects relating to the existing uncertainty surrounding Brexit and global trade – and simply seeing digital protectionism as a side-line issue to focus on at a later date.

This would be a mistake, given that these measures pose as much a threat to international trade and development as the more traditional tools of trade protectionism that seem to be most in focus at present.

Not only do the identified countries above have a strong track record in imposing trade barriers and tariffs on imports, they also have a high number of restrictive data laws and large deposits of the vital raw materials needed to make smartphones, connected devices and batteries for electric vehicles.

While this is happening in real time, many technology focused brands – focused on the manufacturing side of the industry – may not yet have anticipated how this will affect their sourcing and subsequent supply chain partners and processes.

This makes it even more important that General Counsel communicate the effect of this on the output of their businesses in order to assist internal relationships or indeed, using the foresight of their selected legal advisers.