Tata, most notably a car company, is aiming to become an electronics manufacturer and in talks with Apple to build the iPhone in India. The company wants to launch a joint venture with the Taiwanese company Wistron that has a lot of experience with Apple products.
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According to people familiar with the matter, Tata is aiming to be a giant in technology manufacturing, and wants to tap into the experience of Wistron to build out its capabilities in product development, supply chain and assembly. The move could make Tata the first company to build the iPhone in India, which are currently built in China and Taiwan.
India wants to challenge China as the primary destination where technology companies build their products, and this move could give it a leg up in the new tech race. If this move does go through, it could entice other companies to follow suit. The structure of the deal and details such as shareholdings are yet to be finalised, and talks are ongoing, the people said, declining to be named as the conversations are private.
Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran has said electronics and high-tech manufacturing are key focus areas for the company, India’s top conglomerate with revenue of about US$128-billion. Industries such as software, steel and cars account for much of Tata’s business, but it has taken early steps in the smartphone supply chain by starting to manufacture iPhone chassis components in southern India.
The promise of India’s 1.4 billion-strong consumer market and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s financial incentives for tech production have driven Apple’s other key contract manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron to also expand in the country. Still, India’s workforce and factories haven’t easily adopted the highly controlled practices that Apple requires from suppliers: since iPhone assembly began in India five years ago, workers have revolted over salaries and substandard living and working conditions in two prominent incidents.
