iPhone 15 Launch: ‘India-Made’ Could Be Available For Indian Customers Soon – News18

Apple is all set to launch the iPhone 15 series, Apple Watch Series 9, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 at its ‘Wonderlust’ event tomorrow on September 12. And this year, the iPhone 15 series is being touted as representative of a massive change in terms of adopting USB-C as the standard port—replacing the decade-old Lightning connector.

However, apart from the switch to USB-C and the myriad of new upgrades that the new phones will bring to the table—another major shift—specifically for India, would be the availability of ‘Made in India’ iPhone 15 units right from the launch—or at least—near the launch in the Indian market. 

The Economic Times reported that Apple could be preparing to make the ‘Made in India’ iPhone 15 available in India almost simultaneously with its global release. And that Apple is using the Foxconn facility in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, to bring the iPhone 15 to the Indian market around mid-September—narrowing the gap compared to the worldwide launch to just a few days, if not simultaneously.

Last year, with the iPhone 14, Apple took nearly 10 days after the global launch to start making the vanilla iPhone 14 at Foxconn’s Tamil Nadu plant. But this year, the iPhone maker is prepared in advance and is set to make the India-made iPhone 15 units available to Indian customers before they are exported to other regions.

Apple, last year, confirmed that it was making the iPhone 14 in India in a statement to PTI. “We’re excited to be manufacturing iPhone 14 in India. The new iPhone 14 lineup introduces groundbreaking new technologies and important safety capabilities,” Apple said in September 2022.

Estimates suggest that it probably took Apple until the end of September to offer the India-made iPhone 14 to Indian customers. But this time, things might change, as reported. So, if the Chennai-made phones are ready for sale in India when the global launch happens, it would show that Apple is giving more importance to its Indian production and that India is becoming a bigger priority for the American tech company.

Notably, this doesn’t mean that Apple launched the iPhone 14 models late in India. In fact, the models were available in India right in line with the global launch on September 16—the same time as in the US. It’s just that those were not ‘Indian’ units.