Apple to shift production of some AirPods, Beats headphones to India: Report

Apple is asking its suppliers to move the production of some AirPods and Beats headphones to India, which would give a boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make-in-India' campaign.

This is for the first time that Apple asked to move the AirPods and Beats headphone production to India. The move is considered as a win for the South Asia nation as it attempts to rise in the global supply chain, Nikkei Asia reported.

This move is also seen as Apple walking away from China to lower the risk of supply chain disruptions stemming from the country's strict zero-COVID policy and tensions with the US.

iPhone assembler Foxconn is preparing to make Beats headphones in the country, and hopes to eventually produce AirPods there as well, Nikkei Asia reported.

Luxshare Precision Industry and its affiliates, which produce AirPods in Vietnam and China, also plan to help Apple make the popular wireless earphones in India, according to Nikkei Asia citing sources.

However, Luxshare is focusing more on its Vietnamese AirPods operations for now and could be slower than its competitors in starting meaningful production of Apple products in India.

Earlier, the production of AirPods shifted to Vietnam in 2019 amid fallout from the US-China trade war, becoming one of the earliest Apple products to be mass-produced outside of China.

More than 70 million units are shipped each year, second only to the iPhone among Apple products in terms of shipment volume. The majority of Beats production has also shifted to Vietnam since last year, according to Nikkei Asia citing sources.

Bringing AirPods and Beats production to India would enlarge Apple's production footprint in the country, following a recent announcement that the latest iPhone is already being made there. Apple started having some older iPhone models made in India in 2017 by a smaller supplier, Wistron, but only accelerated such production last year.

Joey Yen, a tech analyst with IDC said that India will emerge as a key alternative for electronics production outside China.

"India is learning from China's success over the years, and it has a similar potential to become a very meaningful player in the global supply chain. It has young engineering talent and a big workforce, and a massive domestic market as a foundation," Yen said as quoted by Nikkei Asia.