As global tech giants diversify their supply chains to reduce over-reliance on China, India often emerges as the strongest alternative. But despite government incentives, low-cost labor, and Apple’s growing footprint in the country, India is still not a viable option for Apple, at least in the short run.

In his newly released book “Apple in China,“ journalist Patrick McGee, former Apple reporter for the Financial Times, explains why India isn’t ready yet. The book unpacks the company’s deep supply chain entanglement with Beijing and its challenging attempts to replicate that success elsewhere.

Why can’t Apple leave China?

While Apple has made notable progress in India, such as manufacturing flagship Pro models and launching physical retail stores, the pace has been markedly sluggish compared to China’s meteoric rise in the same role. According to McGee, iPhone production in India grew from zero to just 15 million units between 2016 and 2023, making up only 7% of global shipments. In contrast, China ramped up to 153 million units in the same timeframe a decade earlier. In McGee’s words,

India builds iPhones 10x slower than China did.

This gap isn’t just about numbers. It reveals systemic issues in supply chain readiness, infrastructure, and policy alignment. These factors make India a long-term partner, not an immediate alternative.

Not “Made in India iPhones”—Just Assembled

Apple’s operations in India are still restricted to Final Assembly, Test, and Pack (FATP), which is considered one of the biggest limitations in Apple’s India plan. Most of the components still arrive from China, making India a labour-intensive extension of Apple’s larger, China-based supply chain.

A senior manufacturing design engineer, quoted by McGee, joked that

The phones are assembled in China, disassembled there, and then sent to India for reassembly.

This means India isn’t adding much value beyond low-cost labor. Ironically, that value is diminished by the logistical cost of flying components from China, often negating India’s labor cost advantage.

Policy Paralysis and Cautious Expansion

In 2018, Tim Cook had envisioned India on a “China-like trajectory.” However, five years later, Apple’s push remained “tepid,” mainly due to the fact that India demanded 30% local sourcing, a condition China never imposed.

In 2017, these requirements were relaxed, allowing Apple suppliers like Wistron to assemble iPhones and avoid tariffs. But despite that, Apple still faces bureaucratic red tape, a lack of component ecosystems, and inadequate infrastructure that continues to hold back progress.

Even seemingly symbolic milestones came late. Apple’s online store launched in India in 2020, and its first physical store opened 15 years after China’s.

Apple manufacturing in India and supply chain issues

While India and China both assemble iPhones today, McGee argues that shared supply chains introduce complications, not resilience. A former Apple engineer told him that Apple’s effort to build capacity in India has been slow, and running assembly lines in two countries with overlapping supply dependencies increases risks rather than mitigating them.

The Shanghai lockdown of 2022 may have shaken Apple’s faith in China’s reliability, but the company can’t afford to abandon the scale, efficiency, and mature ecosystem that took over a decade to build.

Apple vs Trump tariff

To make matters more complicated, Apple is now under fresh geopolitical pressure, this time from the United States. In May 2025, President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 20% tariff on iPhones manufactured in India and elsewhere if Apple doesn’t start making its devices in the U.S. Trump publicly warned CEO Tim Cook that failure to shift production stateside could lead to “harsh consequences.” This puts Apple in a tight spot: caught between a still-developing India, a politically risky China, and mounting pressure at home to “reshore” its manufacturing.

Apple manufacturing in India: 5–10 Years Ahead

Apple does intend to turn India into a full-fledged hub, but even the most optimistic estimates peg that transformation to another 5–10 years. Building up a local supply base, training talent, and matching China’s scale will take time.

In the meantime, India remains a supplementary player, not a replacement. As Patrick McGee writes, the hype around India becoming “the next Apple hub” is just that; for now, it’s more headline than reality.