Apple has reportedly completed assembly of a trial batch of iPhone SE in a facility in Karnataka. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the “Made in India” iPhone SE units will be shipped to consumers by the end of this month. Apple has partnered with Taiwanese OEM Wistron Corp to assemble the iPhone SE locally.
Apple has neither shared any future plans nor confirmed this development publicly. However, The Wall Street Journal report claimed that Apple has confirmed this trial of assembling iPhone SE locally.
The iPhone SE was launched in India for a price of Rs 39,999 last year in April. The current price of the 32GB Space Grey variant of the iPhone SE is around Rs 22,000.
To lower prices, Apple has been seeking to set up local production and has been in talks with the Indian government regarding issues such as tax concessions. However, Apple has not revealed any details on the price of the locally made iPhone SE version while it should ideally cost less.
With the launch of the iPhone SE, Apple went back to its popular 4-inch size. The iPhone SE has the same four-inch screen as the iPhone 5S that Apple began selling in 2013. In fact, both iPhone SE and iPhone 5S look the same. However, it comes with a better A9 processor, 12-megapixel camera and a secure chip that allows the use of Apple Pay, the company’s digital payment service.
