iPhone 15: First day first show for ’Made in India’

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You could call it ‘first day first show’ for the “Made in India” label. If you buy the new iPhone 15 that was unveiled in California on September 12, you could be holding a handset that was made in India. Apple has made plans to put on sale the India-built iPhone 15 in India and some other regions on the debut day, The Times of India said in a report speaking to officials familiar with the matter. Apple began iPhone 15 production at contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology’s factory in Tamil Nadu in August. While the vast majority of iPhone 15 sets will come from Chinese factories, some of the devices assembled in India factories would also be available on the first day of the sale, making it a landmark event in the history of foreign companies manufacturing on Indian soil. The lowest price of iPhone 15 is $799. The sale of new products usually begins about 10 days after the unveiling of the model. As Apple began following the “China plus one” strategy, India emerged as a choice to make its products. Factories in India that contract manufacture its products are mostly located in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. More factories are being set up. The government has gone all out to make manufacture for the iconic company attractive by offering incentives under the PLI scheme. On September 12, Apple unveiled the new iPhone 15 with a brighter display and a 48-megapixel camera. It features a 100% recycled cobalt in its battery. Apple announced that iPhone 15 will feature the same A16 bionic chip inside which formed the ‘brain’ of the iPhone 14 Pro. An Apple executive said the company employed machine learning create a unique feature. It can now detect a person in the frame, which will enable users to turn a picture into a portrait in a moment or later in the photos app. Apple also made public a Series 9 Watch with a feature called “double tap”. This feature would allow users to tap their thumb and finger together twice to perform tasks like answering a phone call. The interesting part is they don’t have to touch the watch. The watch would achieve this feat through machine learning which would detect very small changes in blood flow when the user taps their fingers together. It would, as a result, free up his/her other hand for other tasks, said Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams. Incidentally, the watch is also touted as the first carbon-neutral product from the company. Officials said that if there are small delays with the iPhone 15 handsets that are assembled in India, it would be only due to unforeseen logistics bottlenecks. The iPhone 15 launch comes against the backdrop of economic uncertainty in China, which is Apple’s third-largest market besides being its largest manufacturing base. Recently, it was widely reported that the Chinese government forbade its employees to use iPhones in offices.