Trump’s ‘little problem’ with Tim Cook will not hamper iPhone-maker’s plans here: Experts

Currently, 15 per cent of iPhone’s global output comes from India and its contract manufacturers like Foxconn are engaged in manufacturing iPhones

US President Donald Trump’s advice to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook not to build factories in India are unlikely to hamper the iPhone-maker’s long-term plan in India, said analysts on Thursday.

On his visit to Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, Trump said: “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, ‘My friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 billion, but now I hear you are building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of India because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world, so it is very hard to sell in India. They (India) have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs.’ I said, ‘Tim, we are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves’.”

Indian officials reportedly spoke to the executives of the Cupertino-based firm soon after Trump made the statement. According to government sources, Apple’s investment plans for India are intact and it proposes to have a major manufacturing base for its products in the country.

Several analysts businessline spoke to said Trump’s threats are not going to have much impact on Apple’s business plans. “This is typical Trump trying to keep all players on tenterhooks. I doubt this will lead Apple or any major companies to change their plans in the short term,” Mahesh Uppal, Director of Com First (India), said.

Cost benefits

They cite a number of reasons for it, the first being that it is costly and impractical for Apple to shift manufacturing to the US and secondly, it benefits not only from skilled labour availability and lower wages in India as also policy initiatives such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.

The US financial firm Wedbush Securities has estimated that an iPhone, which currently costs around $1,000 when manufactured in Asia, could soar to over $3,000 if production is moved to the US.

“It is absolutely impossible for any growth-oriented smartphone maker to ignore India, as the enabling policies allow them to participate in developing a promising value-chain and de-risk their dependence on a few countries,” Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and Founder at Techarc, told businessline.

Currently, 15 per cent of iPhone’s global output comes from India and its contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, Tata Electronics and Pegatron India (majorly owned by Tata Electronics) are engaged in manufacturing iPhones. Recently, Foxconn has also started manufacturing Apple Airpods in Telangana, for exports.

Published on May 15, 2025