By Satyaki Chakraborty
Amidst the present battle between India and China over the sharing of the manufacture of American high tech company Apple’s iPhones, Chinese daily Global Times, in its latest commentary has appreciated India’s expertise in manufacturing Apple’s iPhones but at the same time said that it will take some more time for India to compete with China as a manufacturer at the level of China.
According to the Chinese view, India is not replacing China in terms of manufacturing Apple’s iPhones, India is only playing a supplementary role, providing the Apple with a leverage , a Plan B and a visible token of supply chain derisking. That’s valuable but that is not independence which China enjoys.
As the Chinese government experts see it, Apple has been steadily expanding its footprint in India, with its primary contract manufacturer, Foxconn, building massive new production complexes across the country. Currently, Apple assembles a significant number of its phones in India. However, let’s not mistake motion for transformation.
What’s happening in India is not a relocation of Apple’s industrial engine; it is a cautious diversification – an insurance policy, not a replacement. If you were to peel off the “Made in India” label from one of those new iPhones, you would still find the fingerprints of China all over it: the components, the suppliers, the manufacturing know-how.
For all its recent progress, India remains far from ready to truly replace China in iPhone manufacturing, not because it lacks ambition, but because it lacks the ecosystem. Then, the GT commentary mentions that the story of Apple and China is not just one of offshoring or outsourcing but it is one of cocreation.
According to this Chinese view, over the past two decades, Apple didn’t simply plug into a Chinese system – it helped build it. When Apple needed aluminium cases with exacting colour gradients, or translucent plastics with zero defects, it flew in engineers to train Chinese workers from scratch. When new tooling was required, Chinese suppliers didn’t wait for instructions – they retooled overnight. Since 2008, Apple has trained more than 28 million workers in China, invested billions in local infrastructure and formed an intricate web of partnerships with Chinese giants like BYD, Luxshare, Goertek and Wingtech.
This is what analysts now call the “Red Supply Chain” – a highly integrated, fast-moving, hyper-responsive ecosystem that China has perfected, and that no other country, including India, has yet replicated.
Then GT mentions India is trying, but it’s still primarily putting the finishing screws into devices whose most critical parts are made elsewhere. Nearly all the chips, sensors, displays and cameras in Apple’s Indian-assembled iPhones still come from China or Chinese-owned suppliers. And if there were a serious disruption in China – whether due to tariffs, geopolitics, or worse – India would not be able to pick up the slack. The capacity, scale and speed simply aren’t there.
GT commentary explains India’s challenges are not merely logistical – they are structural. First, Indian manufacturers tend to be smaller and less capitalized than their Chinese counterparts. They lack economies of scale, which results in lower productivity and higher costs. Most Indian firms don’t yet have the quality control or vertical integration needed to win Apple’s trust for complex components.
Second, India’s domestic electronics market is modest in size. Unlike China, which provides a massive local demand base to anchor supply chains, India cannot yet offer the same scale. As a result, multinational suppliers have little incentive to build deep manufacturing capabilities in India beyond what’s required for final assembly.
Third, India’s industrial ecosystem is still immature. India doesn’t yet have the density of precision toolmakers, component suppliers or logistics providers that make China’s system so agile. It’s improving – especially with help from governmental incentive programs – but it’s nowhere near critical mass.
Then the GT says that is not to say India can’t succeed. In fact, the path ahead is well-trodden. Countries like Japan, South Korea and China all began their industrial ascent by hosting foreign firms. Over time, their domestic companies absorbed best practices, moved up the value chain and developed homegrown champions. India could do the same – if it’s willing to play the long game – but that all takes years, even decades.
For Apple, the pressure to diversify is real. The trade war launched by the US has upended global supply chains, and the Trump administration’s recent musings about a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made iPhones only underscore the political risks. So, Apple is doing what it has always done best: balancing.
It is creating the appearance of a strategic shift – investing in India, opening new lines in Vietnam, and buying chips from TSMC’s Arizona plant. However, the underlying reality remains unchanged: The vast majority of iPhone production still depends on Chinese capability, coordination and culture.
Assessing the future of India’s capability, GT says India’s future as a global manufacturing hub is still being written. Its engineers are smart, its workforce is young and its government is eager. With the right investments, the right partners and enough time, India could absolutely become a world-class manufacturing base – not just for Apple, but for the broader tech industry.
But today’s iPhone supply chain is a marvel of complexity and precision, forged over decades through trust, iteration and relentless refinement. Replacing that isn’t just a matter of policy or ambition; it’s a matter of replication, scale and time. The final observation of Chinese experts is for now, the world’s most iconic product may bear a new label but the soul of the iPhone-the circuitry, the supply chain, the silent efficiency is still in China.
For now, the world’s most iconic product may bear a new label, but the soul of the iPhone – the circuitry, the supply chain, the silent efficiency – still resides in China.
Chinese Government’s official assessment underlines the anxiety of the Chinese manufacturers of Apple iPhones since the Indian manufacturers are producing more and more iPhones and the efficiency is also increasing. Apple Inc. assembled $22 billion worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months ended March 2025, increasing production by nearly 60% over the previous year in a sign of continued diversification away from China.
Of the total India production, Apple exported 1.5 trillion rupees ($17.4 billion) in iPhones from the region in the fiscal year through March 2025.Apple has a nearly 8 per cent of the market share of smart phones in India and its sales totalled US$ 8 billion in 2024 consisting mostly iPhones. (IPA Service)
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