Outside of China, Apple wants to recreate its "iPhone City" supply chain.

This is iPhone City, a Foxconn manufacturing campus in Jeongzhou, China, with a population of up to 300,000 and a size comparable to Pittsburgh. At one point, the facility produced 85% of the iPhone Pro lineup, but due to protests at the intersection, other Foxconn factories are now being used to make iPhones in Southern India and facilities in Vietnam are growing to produce other products that were previously primarily made in China.

Here's why constructing new iPhone towns in India and Vietnam over the past 20 years has been a difficult task for Apple and its suppliers. Since it started producing iPhones in 2010, Apple has primarily relied on Foxconn, the largest electronics manufacturer in the world. Foxconn's facility in Zhengzhou has stood out for its effective ecosystem; it excels at sourcing the numerous required parts from manufacturers and putting together the working devices to be shipped out to customers. Supply chain analysts say China has been the best at this because many of these components are made there won't have as easy access to these components, according to the company's most recent list of suppliers. Apple works with more than 180 firms, of whom around 150 have facilities in China. Assemblers in these nations would thus need to import more of the components required to produce Apple goods.


For manufacturers to continue employing hundreds of thousands of people in iPhone City in Zhengzhou, assembling the numerous components that go into Apple products requires a labor-intensive procedure with plenty of paperwork and delays after the parts arrive. Foxcom offers on-site housing, which has allowed workers from across the nation to live and work at the factory, but India's Foxconn Factory, where Apple is now producing new iPhones from the beginning of their production cycle, is much smaller and has fewer workers. As a result, the company buses them in from nearby hostels and Villages that are typically within a 50-mile radius, analysts claim, to meet this rising demand. In the future, Fox Combs Manufacturing in India could require this kind of on-campus housing. Regarding the difficulties faced by factories in India and Vietnam, such as import delays and labor shortages, Apple and Foxconn did not respond to requests for comment. However, in Apple's April earnings call, CEO Tim Cook stated that the company is continuing to optimize the production process and that its supply chain is truly global.


Hence, even though Apple is beginning to seek elsewhere, the items are created elsewhere. Analysts predict that it won't depart entirely from China's effective system any time soon. Wait times for high-end iPhone models have decreased further once Foxconn eliminated covid-19 limits at its jungju facility in early December. Those engaged in Apple's supply chain said the corporation may seek to alternative suppliers in China to minimise its reliance on Foxconn, which might mean more iPhones and other Apple goods will eventually be produced by a wider range of firms.