Smartphone Giants Forced To Close Factories Due To India Lockdown: Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, And LG

Apple's biggest partners in India - Foxconn and Wistron have been forced to shut down several factories in India to comply with the Indian lockdown by the Indian government. This move will probably greatly affect the output of some older iPhone models in the near future. Not just these two, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and LG have announced also the closure of their smartphone factories in India.

According to Bloomberg, Foxconn has started to shut down some production lines until April 14. A representative of outsourcing firm Wistron also said that the company is willing to follow India's orders and declined to comment on the products that are affected by this.

Foxconn and Wistron are currently the leading manufacturing and processing partners for major brands such as Apple. Although no companies have disclosed affected products, Foxconn and Wistron's factories in India are responsible for the production of older iPhone models such as iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 or iPhone SE or manufacturing the models aimed at the Indian market.

On Wednesday, Wistron Chairman Simon Lin said that the temporary closure of factories in India and Malaysia is only in the short term because Wistron can take initiative in human resources and production activities immediately after the India total lockdown order is lifted.

However, a temporary 21-day lockdown could cause damage to many giant technology companies, such as Apple. An Apple representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although Apple only has a small share in the Indian smartphone market because of the high price and import tax of up to 20% making the iPhone unaffordable to the majority, Apple sees India as a potential market in the long-term.

Apple currently has an office with thousands of employees in Hyderabad, Telangana. This office specializes in working on the data for the Apple Maps app in the country. And of course, this office is also seriously affected by the Indian government ban.

Before Foxconn and Wistron, Samsung, Vivo and many other OEMs also shut down factories in India for 21 days under a government ban. This also means that all electronics retail stores will be closed during this time.

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