Last week, we reported that Wistron Corp, Apple's Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partner commenced trial assembling of the iPhone SE at its Peenya plant in the west of Bengaluru, several weeks back and those devices with Made-in-India tag would hit stores soon. Now, reports have emerged that the first batch of those iPhone SE models have already hit select stores in India.
"A picture shared by the source showed details of the iPhone SE with 32GB storage capacity with 'Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in India' printed on the box," PTI reported.
Also read: Here's how Android users can transfer money via Google Assistant
It is believed that Wistron commenced Apple iPhone SE assembling in April and started selling them from May 2 onwards.
Apple iPhone SE made its India debut in March 2016 with a starting price of Rs. 39,000 (16GB base model) and now the same model's 32GB storage variant is being sold for just Rs. 27,200 at brick-and-mortar shops.
[Note: Major e-commerce sites are offering the same model for much lesser price of around Rs. 21,000]
The prices of the Apple devices in India are expected to come down further provided the company set-ups local component manufacturing unit for assembling. Currently, Wistron Corp is sourcing the components from China.
To this to happen, Apple wants Indian government to give tax concessions, but the latter has been reluctant so far.
The Cupertino-based company had asked for tax sops, which include custom duty exemption on procurement of components for assembling and repair units, capital equipment for a period of 15 years, alter FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) norms that require 30 percent domestic sourcing, to set up single-branded Apple retail stores and permission to sell refurbished iPhones in India.
However, the central government is of the view that if they agree to the requests of Apple, it might come across as discriminatory towards other mobile-makers in India, which are assembling devices without any special privilege other than Make-in-India initiative's Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) and the Electronics Development Fund (EDF), which offers property tax holiday for a limited number of years and a few other benefits.
Even local Karnataka state government too has similar views, but it wants Central government to offer same tax concessions to all including Samsung, Lenovo and others, not just for Apple alone.
This will help Indian government attract more mobile phone-makers to shift their manufacturing units from China, or at least make them think of setting up new bases in India.
Watch this space for latest news on Apple and Make in India programme.
Key specification of Apple iPhone SE:
| Model | Apple iPhone SE |
| Display | 4.0-inch LED back-lit retina display (1136x640p)
|
| OS | Apple iOS 9.3 |
| Processor | 64-bit class Apple A9 CPU with M9 co-processor |
| Storage capacity | 16GB/64GB |
| Camera |
|
| Battery | Built-in rechargeable lithium‑ion battery
|
| Network | 4G-LTE |
| Add-ons | Touch ID fingerprint sensor, always on Siri (digital voice assistant), Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2, NFC (Near Field Communication),A-GPS, GLONASS, iBeacon micro-location, FaceTime Wi-Fi (both video and audio) calling, |
| Dimensions | 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm |
| Weight | 113 g |
| Colour options | gold, silver, space grey and rose gold |
