Buying an Apple iPhone SE? Lucky few might get Made in India unit

The new Made in India iPhone SE

If you are buying an Apple iPhone SE anytime soon, do double check to see where the phone is made. If you are lucky, you might end up with a Made in India unit of the Apple phone. The first set of Made in India iPhone SE phones have started selling in many cities. But since this was a trial run with a limited number of units as reported by Indianexpress.com earlier, it would be hard to find these units in the mix. The first few phones have been spotted in Bengaluru, incidentally the city where these phones are assembled. In Bengaluru, the iPhone SE units are being manufactured by Apple’s partner Wistron Corp.

Last month, when news broke that Apple has indeed started assembling these phones in India, a spokesperson had told indianexpress.com this is initial production in Bengaluru will be “of a small number of iPhone SE” units. As reported by The Indian Express, Apple’s plans to start manufacturing in India start with the iPhone SE. In January 2017, Apple had indicated as much in an inter-ministerial committee meeting looking into whether iPhone kits and consumables should be made duty free.

Meanwhile, the Bengaluru edition of the Times of India has reported that these phones available in the city say: “Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in India”. The phones are priced the same as other models manufactured in China. Apple has a policy of keeping the pricing more or less the same across the globe. However, it is clear that the company has chose iPhone SE for local manufacture as it is a more affordable model and would hence appeal to buyers in a price sensitive market like India.

Apple iPhone SE is currently retailing at Rs 21,999 for the 32GB version of the phone on Flipkart. The e-commerce website has a special discount on the iPhone SE, on the original price of Rs 27,200. Flipkart is selling the 16GB version of the Apple iPhone SE for Rs 20,999 compared to the original price of Rs 26,999. The 64GB version of the phone is still retailing at Rs 27,490 on Flipkart.