Does Apple slash the prices of iPhones in India as they are manufactured locally?
Maybe no
That is what we can say by seeing the past trend of other iPhones (6, 6s, 7, SE (2016)) which were too manufactured in India.
First, the question here is Why the prices of iPhones will go down if they manufacture in India?
In short, it is due to Import tax. If a smartphone manufacturer import a fully assembled product in India then they have to pay import tax decided by the Government of India. In the present it is 18%.
So, if the manufacturer chooses to assemble or manufacture its products in India by providing some jobs in India then the government cut down that tax to as low as 1% (If they manufacture in Special Economic Zones (SEZ)).
Coming to the main question — Will we see a reduction in iPhones cost (for India)?
Answer is No. This might seem counter intuitive because it is.
In 2017, Apple started assembling iPhone SE (2016) in India but the price remained same until they launched their next generation smartphone which is quite normal because Apple has good sales for their older models through their history after reducing the price.
After that they started manufacturing iPhone 6, 6s and later 7 but none of these models price slashed due to the tag “Assembled in India” except for becoming older generation smartphones.
This was back in 2016–2018, a time when Apple was leading the market but now there are so many players in the market (OnePlus, IQOO, Xiaomi, OPPO, etc.)
That raises one question — Will we see a reduction in iPhones cost in India considering the competition?
That’s something even I want to know. Some sources say that Apple will reduce prices if they are manufactured locally. We have no idea if price slash is imminent or not. I think Apple will take sometime and then reduce the prices of the present generation iPhones when they become last generation iPhones.
Coming to next generation iPhones, maybe they will price it less than what we have been seeing for past 2–3 year. This is what I think and I don’t hesitate to agree that this might be far from the truth.
But the past trend clearly shows that they may not reduce the prices though manufacturing is done locally.
