Eight words were stamped on the back of every iPhone for years: “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” The slogan illustrated the tech giant’s two power bases: its headquarters in Silicon Valley, and the manufacturing colossus it had become in the world’s factory.
Apple no longer features the words on the back of the iPhone. When the company launched a new supplier transparency website earlier this month, the phrase received an update: “Designed by Apple in California. Made by people everywhere.”
Apple is gradually weaning itself off China as a longstanding and mutually-beneficial relationship between the corporate giant and the country begins to fray.
Data released by the company last week, which outlined its relationships with hundreds of component and material providers, showed that while China remains the tech giant’s biggest single source of suppliers it is slowly turning elsewhere.
Last year, 156 of 465 manufacturing sites used by Apple suppliers were in China – 33.6pc. This was down from 35.2pc and 36.4pc in 2022 and 2021 respectively, and 46pc five years earlier. The company is relying more heavily on supply chains in countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea.
The huge factories where those parts are turned into finished Apple products are largely based in China. But that too is changing.
In 2022, Apple assembled just 5pc of iPhones and other gadgets outside China, according to JP Morgan. However, the company reportedly hopes to make a quarter of iPhones in India as soon as next year. Last year’s new iPhone models were the first manufactured in both India and China from launch day.
Apple is not alone in seeking to move production away from China. Extended Covid lockdowns there during 2021 and 2022, as well as political pressure, have pushed manufacturers to look elsewhere. The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai found that last year that a fifth of US firms operating in the country were seeking to move manufacturing abroad, and two fifths were looking to redeploy investments originally planned for China.
