Apple plans to produce iPhone 14 in India: Report

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley joins the Live show to discuss reports that Apple is planning iPhone 14 production in India.

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BRIAN SOZZI: Apple is reportedly planning to start making its new iPhone 14 in India about two months after its release out of China. That's in an effort to narrow the tech gap between the two countries. Yahoo Finance's tech editor Dan Howley is here with the details. Dan.

DAN HOWLEY: That's right, Brian. This usually happens some months after we see the release of a new iPhone or after we start to see the initial products be built out in China. But according to this Bloomberg report, they're going to start narrowing that gap, bringing it closer to two months after the initial build out in China.

And this all goes into Apple's strategy of further diversifying its production capabilities outside of Greater China. They're looking towards Vietnam. They're looking towards Mexico, and in this case, obviously, India.

Now, it's worth pointing out that India is the world's second largest smartphone market, and they continue to grow. Whereas China, not seeing the same kind of growth that India is. We're seeing more consumers get into that class where they're able to make those larger-priced purchases.

It's still very expensive in India, by the way. They're not any less expensive there. In fact, they're more expensive there than compared to the US. But, yeah, this is a very big move.

And, you know, does it mean that Apple is going to move entirely out of China? No. But it does see Apple hedging its bets that there's potentially bigger problems coming as far as manufacturing products there down the line. And obviously, this also comes after all those lockdowns and shutdowns that we've seen in China hampering manufacturing. So this is Apple making a bet on the fact that they may have to further diversify just to kind of get away from these kind of troubles in the future.

BRAD SMITH: Do we know if this would change any of the other suppliers that they rely on to produce the product?

DAN HOWLEY: Well, really, they're still going to be relying on Foxconn. They're the ones that are going to be building out in India. So it's not really that big of a change. Some of the smaller suppliers may have to change as a result.

But, you know, when it comes to Apple and their products, I mean, they are so rigid with quality control checks that they have to have everything to the exact specifications that they want. And if they're not, then they'll move to a different company when it comes to those smaller suppliers, even larger suppliers. But Foxconn has been doing this for so long that they are a very trusted partner with Apple. So I don't see that changing down the line. But, you know, it is interesting just to again to point out that this is one of the growing smartphone markets in India and that they are placing more manufacturing there down the line.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, a lot of growth potential in the region for sure. Yahoo Finance's own tech-designated hitter, DH Dan Howley, joining us here this morning. Appreciate it, Dan.