Apple has expanded its involvement in the U.S. tech giant’s supply chain by bringing in Tata Group to handle iPhone and MacBook repairs in its rapidly expanding Indian market, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
Tata has quickly become Apple’s primary supplier as the company looks outside of China for production. It now assembles iPhones for both domestic and international markets at three sites in south India, one of which also produces some iPhone components.
According to these sources, as part of its most recent partnership expansion, Tata is taking over the mandate from ICT Service Management Solutions, an Indian division of Taiwan’s Wistron, and will perform these after-sales repairs from its iPhone assembly facility in Karnataka.
With iPhone sales soaring, the repair business in India, the second-largest smartphone market globally, is only going to get bigger. Approximately 11 million iPhones were sold in India last year, according to Counterpoint Research, giving Apple a 7% market share, up from 1% in 2020.
Apple’s increasing trust in Tata is demonstrated by the most recent contract award, which the company thinks will help it secure additional business from the most valuable smartphone company in the world.
“Tata’s deepening partnership with Apple could also pave the groundwork for Apple directly selling refurbished devices in India, like how it does in the United States currently,” said Prabhu Ram, a vice president at Cybermedia Research.
Both people, who asked not to be identified because they were not permitted to comment on the subject, stated that Tata’s acquisition of ICT is still going on.
Requests for response were not answered by Apple or Wistron, and a Tata representative declined to comment.
Apple’s official service centers in India are capable of performing simple repairs, but for more complicated problems, they now transport phones and laptops to Tata’s facility.
According to one of the sources, Wistron’s ICT would still provide services to other customers, barring Apple.
India is also becoming a popular location for iPhone exports, despite the looming prospect of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the majority of iPhones sold in the US during the June quarter would be produced in Indian facilities.
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