Apple brought a much-awaited upgrade to the original iPhone SE to India earlier this year. The iPhone SE (2020) or iPhone SE 2, as some prefer to call it, is now the most affordable iPhone sold by Apple in India. But as the ‘vocal for local’ sentiment echoes strongly across the country, the Cupertino giant looks to contribute by assembling the iPhone SE (2020) in India.
Apple’s manufacturing partner, Wistron, has started assembling the new iPhone SE (one that resembles the iPhone 8 and packs the guts of iPhone 11) at its Bengaluru facility. This news comes just a few days after we learned that Wistron is bulking up its workforce and could manufacture the upcoming iPhone 12 series in India in 2021.
“New iPhone SE packs our most powerful chip into our most popular size at our most affordable price and we are excited to be making it in India for our local customers,” said Apple in an official statement (via IANS).
Currently, the company hasn’t provided any details for when users will be able to buy the new iPhone SE (2020) with the ‘Assembled in India’ tag. We can, however, expect to see these locally manufactured iPhones on store shelves over the coming weeks. All e-tailers will soon mention the same on their websites as well.
The biggest question of all is – How will the local assembly of iPhone SE (2020) benefit the buyer?
Well, Apple currently needs to pay 20 percent import duty on each iPhone that it ships to India from its other manufacturing hubs. The company can now avoid these import costs but it will still have to pay taxes on individual parts. Overall, you can expect Apple to declare a price cut for its most affordable offering in the coming weeks. It currently starts at Rs. 42,500 (or $399 in the US) in India.
Apart from the iPhone SE (2020), the Cupertino giant already assembles its flagship iPhone 11 series and popular & colorful iPhone XR in the country. This is a welcome move from Apple in support of the long-running ‘Make in India’ program. It will see Apple sell more of these affordable iPhones, which has already sold 10 million units in Q2 2020.