Following iPhone 15, Foxconn is reportedly to make another iPhone 15 model, iPhone 15 Plus, at its Chennai facility.
The Economic Times quoted sources saying that Foxconn would start making iPhone 15 Plus in its Chennai facility in the fourth quarter, but as the festive season approaches, iPhone production capacity in India is still low, which requires Apple to import the smartphones from overseas to meet local demands.
Apple does not outsource any of its contract manufacturing partners to make the Pro models in India, which would lead to much higher price tags for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max due to the more than 20% of basic customs duties and social welfare surcharge imposed on imported mobile phones.
According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, Foxconn was granted the license to make and ship the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus for local demand on August 25. The world's largest electronics manufacturer has not applied for any license to make iPhone Pro models in India since 2019. Despite Apple and Foxconn successfully reducing the time lag between the iPhone's launch date and its shipment from the Indian facility, the manufacturing ecosystem in India is not yet prepared to handle the production of more premium models.
Meanwhile, TechCrunch and Financial Express reported that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will come with the support of NavIC, India's homegrown navigation system developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), making the product the first iPhone model to support NavIC.
