NEW DELHI: Apple is staring at its weakest year since 2015, with iPhone shipments falling a sharp 42% in the January-March quarter from a year before.Although shipments rose threefold in April from levels in March owing to massive discounts, they declined in May and June, underlining Apple’s struggles in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market, analysts said.Apple is likely to start manufacturing its higher-end phones locally through Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn , with an initial monthly capacity of 250,000 devices. About 70-80% of the output may be exported as the smartphone maker tries to diversify its production base outside China.“Apple had a disappointing run in 2018 and the outlook for 2019 looks weaker, with shipments having fallen further compared to last year, with the exception of April, thanks to price correction that month,” said Neil Shah, research director at Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research.iPhone shipments into India dipped to 220,000 units in the January-March quarter. Analysts at the firm estimate the number could rise three-fold for the half year. However, the full year estimate is 1.5 million to 1.6 million, a 10-17% drop from 2018 and as much as 53% lower than the peak shipment of 3.2 million in 2017.The silver lining was in April, when shipments rose to as much as 200,000 units fuelled by price cuts and discounts on select devices and the clearing of iPhone X and XR inventory. A second person said Foxconn should be looking at a 200,000-250,000 unit capacity per month to begin with and added that the company was moving machinery or manufacturing lines from some of its China factories to India.Industry experts said scaled-up local manufacturing could help Apple meet local sourcing norms that are a pre-requisite for opening its own stores in India.

Source: Economic Times July 04, 2019 00:22 UTC