Apple’s plea gets rejected once again; Govt remains firm on its stand

Apple plea to seek concessions does not seem to working. According to a new report, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the Rajya Sabha said, that the government has denied most of the demands of iPhone maker Apple.

This is not the first and surely not the last time. Apple executives have been approaching the government time and again, seeking relaxations on customs duty on raw materials (called manufacturing and repair inputs), yield loss on inputs, components and capital equipment (including parts) and consumables for manufacturing, services and repair. And this is not just for a year or two but a good 15 years.

Why does Apple want these concessions? Well, there is an excuse for that as well. The concessions that Apple seeks would help the company get component makers to set up units in the country, because Apple believes that India is incapable of meeting its demands when it comes to components.

The Government so far seems to be on track. And it is doing this by rejecting most of Apple’s demands, as per today’s update. The government is right on its part as well, as it cannot make sweet heart deals just with one technology major and reject the rest who have so far been okay, playing by the rules and adapting to the local set up.

According to a latest report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple is all set to start assembling its iPhones via its contract manufacturer Wistron Corp, in the next two months. WSJ came to know about this move thanks to government sources familiar with the matter.

Taiwanese company Wistron Corp, Apple’s contract manufacturer, has already setup a unit in Bengaluru in Karnataka. It will most likely be making iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s models at this plant in a four-to-six week time-frame according to an official from Karnataka. The iPhone SE will also be added to the assembly line in about a three month time-frame.

It was not too long ago that Chinese smartphone brand, Xiaomi tried its luck as well. Today it’s making waves in the industry with its partnership with Foxconn and even plans to open a second factory to keep up with demand. Xiaomi even recently revealed that 95 percent of its smartphones being sold in India were made in India.

The new facility in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh has been set up to manufacture its latest budget buster, the Redmi 4A. Oddly, the news comes at a time when Xiaomi’s home market in China is not doing too well either.

Indeed, this also hints that India is the hotbed for manufacturing smartphones and this is solely the reason why Apple wants in. It attempts to meet its very specific and special demands will not go away so easily.

Apple has been here before and was rejected back then as well. Apple initially wanted to sell used smartphones in the country. A plan which was rejected back in 2016.

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from http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/apples-plea-gets-rejected-once-again-govt-remains-firm-on-its-stand-368499.html