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Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

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Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#91

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

deepGem wrote: post #8

Man, finally this came along. Apple had been negotiating for almost 3 years to setup manufacturing in India. Foxconn got a start in the outskirts of Bangalore where they manufacture iPhone SEs. I as a customer am super glad this is coming along. Tired of paying a premium for Apple products in India. In addition to iPhones I seriously hope they start iPad manufacturing as well. IMHO iPads will probably have a better s…

Due to massive taxes for pre-built smartphones and less taxes for components(A tactic effectively employed to pressure manufactures to make their phone in India), top tier iPhones cost the highest in India. When these are manufactured in the country, it should match the price of other countries.

But that doesn't mean it will become affordable, Apple has positioned itself as a luxury brand & is said to have the largest markup among smartphone manufacturers.

Indians looking for cost/value will always have better alternative, but for those 'Who value themselves upon what others see in their hands' will burn lesser cash than before.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#92

Post by sumedh »

Theodores wrote: post #83
sumedh wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> considering the horrific state India is in (high corruption, high poverty, low healthcare, no infrastructure, you name it), You missed jobs in that statement, Iphone factory brings jobs directly and indirectly in that region. Try looking at the big picture.

In the automotive sector India has its own successful manufacturers. Tata now owns a whole slew of British auto companies in Jaguar/Land Rover. So, despite these horror stories of corruption, someone in the Indian auto sector is doing something right. I don't see why, given the market size, that India can't have its own full stack of mobile phone tech, operating systems, apps and everything else. Why settle for crumb…

> Why settle for a few jobs for the profits to go back to Cupertino?

You may have the luxury to say that, lot of Indians dont. They need that job.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#93

Post by zapita »

simonh wrote: post #68
Kurtz79 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That’s what Apple usually does: they keep roughly the same digits, and change the currency." It makes no sense comparing US and EU prices directly, as the former are always shown without VAT (which varies state from state), and in the latter the VAT is included (which is specific to each country). Also, price will fluctuate even across EU countries, on account of different VAT taxes in the individual member states,…

Nice analysis. If you factor in local sales taxes in the US, that 10% difference shrinks or even disappears pretty fast. I'm afraid 'Apple charges more abroad' is largely a fallacy. Where there is a difference, it's almost always pretty clearly due to local taxes or costs of doing business. This used to really piss off Steve J[1] because he saw it as terribly unfair. [1] https://www.imore.com/steve-jobs-international…

> If you factor in local sales taxes in the US, that 10% difference shrinks or even disappears pretty fast.

If you factor in sales tax on the US side, you also have to factor in VAT on the EU side, since they are equivalent.

So that 10% difference is correct.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#94

Post by glogla »

simonh wrote: post #63
arcticbull wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they keep them the same price and make even more impressive margins. There's a reason they have 87% of the world smartphone profit share [1] and it's not because they're giving them away or passing on the cost savings to their customers. Import duty on iPhones is 18% and 28% on iPads as of 2015. [2] Wealth inequality in India is pretty high (not as high as in the US, though, GINI 35.6 vs 40.4), and it's GDP per ca…

Apple's market share in India is about 2% while in China it's about 7 percent. Apple's profit margin is generally about 30%. The import tax in India is now 20%. Lets suppose Apple could increase market share in India to match that in China by reducing prices by the 20% tax, and compare that to keeping the 20% as extra profit but not increasing market share. 2% market share on 50% profit margin (existing 30% margin pl…

> Finally, all the arguments you make for charging more apply equally well anywhere in the world. So why doesn't Apple charge India prices everywhere in the world already?

They kind of do, except they're slowly easing into it. First iPhone was 499 USD for the base model. iPhone X was 999 USD for the base model.

So over 10 years, they slowly raised their prices 100 %.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#95

Post by oasisbob »

xbmcuser wrote: post #19
NTDF9 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a logistics/risk balancing/new demand move. 1. Logistics: Cheaper to ship to rich Middle east and maybe even Europe 2. Risk balancing: With uncertainty at political levels about tariffs and trade rules, it makes sense to distribute production to multiple places in the world. 3. New demand: Lower cost of production == lower prices in India. Apple has negligible penetration in the largest fastest growing market. T…

Gdp per capita for India is around ~$2000. India does not have much of a market for +$500 phones nor does it have a contract system where the +$500 can be paid over time. So I don't see it help Apple much in gaining market share. At the current Apple prices I have seen multiple long time Apple users leave Apple. Unless Apple is willing to cut its margins dramatically I don't see them getting much of a foot hold in In…

The problem I see with that argument is that it dismisses what all sorts of other upmarket brands are doing in India.

Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and others are making essentially the same play. They must see a valuable enough market to warrant that kind of investment.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#96

Post by mortehu »

zapita wrote: post #93
simonh wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice analysis. If you factor in local sales taxes in the US, that 10% difference shrinks or even disappears pretty fast. I'm afraid 'Apple charges more abroad' is largely a fallacy. Where there is a difference, it's almost always pretty clearly due to local taxes or costs of doing business. This used to really piss off Steve J[1] because he saw it as terribly unfair. [1] https://www.imore.com/steve-jobs-international…

> If you factor in local sales taxes in the US, that 10% difference shrinks or even disappears pretty fast. If you factor in sales tax on the US side, you also have to factor in VAT on the EU side, since they are equivalent. So that 10% difference is correct.

European countries often have a minimum 5 year warranty on electronics sold to consumers, while Apple's extended warranty costs more than 10% for just two years, so that's got to be an important factor too. AppleCare is probably better than what's required by law in Europe though.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#97

Post by [deleted] »

xxs wrote: post #64
dmitriid wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s what Apple usually does: they keep roughly the same digits, and change the currency. And it usually makes their products significantly more expensive outside of the US. I live in Sweden, and the pricing will go like this: - The US: $999 - The EU: €999 - Sweden: 9900 SEK Depending on currency rates, it can become up to 30% more expensive. My favorite discovery was around the time of the trashcan MacPro. It was…

Sweden is still in the EU, it has higher VAT than (say) Germany as well. Also iphone x is ~865 on amazon.de[0]. You can order with within the EU (see the 1st sense again), the delivery would be around ~10€, but the price is to be a bit higher due to VAT diff. Side benefit of amazon is that you will never need to deal with apple repair services as you can send the goods back to amazon. US price has no sale tax (which…

[deleted]

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#98

Post by novaleaf »

hodder wrote: post #14
deepGem wrote: post #8

Man, finally this came along. Apple had been negotiating for almost 3 years to setup manufacturing in India. Foxconn got a start in the outskirts of Bangalore where they manufacture iPhone SEs. I as a customer am super glad this is coming along. Tired of paying a premium for Apple products in India. In addition to iPhones I seriously hope they start iPad manufacturing as well. IMHO iPads will probably have a better s…

What makes you think you will not pay a premium for iPhones in India in the future? Apple prices based on demand curves, not supply costs.

indeed, I recall being in Thailand where HD's are (were?) built, and buying one still costed aprox 2x the price in the USA.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#99

Post by foepys »

mortehu wrote: post #96
zapita wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you factor in local sales taxes in the US, that 10% difference shrinks or even disappears pretty fast. If you factor in sales tax on the US side, you also have to factor in VAT on the EU side, since they are equivalent. So that 10% difference is correct.

European countries often have a minimum 5 year warranty on electronics sold to consumers, while Apple's extended warranty costs more than 10% for just two years, so that's got to be an important factor too. AppleCare is probably better than what's required by law in Europe though.

Where does law say to give 5 years warranty? I'm only aware of 2 years.

Re: Mass Production of iPhones to Start in India

#100

Post by ForHackernews »

gambiting wrote: post #84
ForHackernews wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's legally fraud, but yes, there's a good chance you'd get away with it.

Unless you're buying it with an explicit purpose to sell it off and avoid the import taxes that way it's absolutely not fraud. You are legally allowed to buy something for yourself while abroad and bring it back. That's why you get certain allowances of how much you are allowed to bring back with you - say up to 200 cartons of cigarettes are free to bring over and that's clearly not something that you brought with yo…

In the case of Sweden, the personal duty-free allowance absolutely does not run to the cost of a specced-out Mac Pro: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/travelling...

> Other goods (including perfume, coffee, tea, electronic devices etc.)(a) - Up to a value of €430 for air and sea travellers

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