Apple desires more time or an exemption on older phones to comply with India's well-known charging regs

In a nutshell: India these days handed policies requiring USB-C charging ports for smartphones sold within the us of a by means of June 2025. Apple reportedly informed New Delhi officers that the brand new guidelines would severely effect manufacturing goals and asked officials to delay the closing date or exempt older iPhones from the requirement.

Apple has iPhone assembly centers in India to supply nearby income and exports. Currently, it sells gadgets going lower back to the iPhone 12. The most effective device equipped with USB-C is the iPhone 15, and it promised all future iPhones could have standard charging ports. However, retrofitting all fashions bought in India might be highly-priced and time-consuming, even though it did not provide estimates.

Reuters notes that Apple advised India's IT ministry in a closed-door assembly that it can not exchange beyond designs by using the cut-off date. If regulators do now not go into reverse, the organisation will fail to fulfill production quotas set below India's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The PLI is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to enlarge manufacturing and sales of smartphones within the country.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, 12-14 percent of 2023 iPhone manufacturing is from India. Counterpoint Research said iPhone increase within the u . S . A . Passed 32 percent in 2023. Although Apple's cellphone market share in India is only six percentage, that is up from two percentage just 4 years ago.

It might appear that Apple holds all the cards inside the negotiation. Despite its small piece of the market pie, India's PLI plans to rely on persisted iPhone income. Indian buying tendencies show customers prefer purchasing lower-priced but older telephones over the modern day and greatest. So if regulators don't cut Cupertino some slack, it could stop income on iPhones 12, thirteen, and 14, upsetting the marketplace.

However, it probably won't come to that. Everybody needs a win-win final results, so regulators are probable to concede is fairly, and there is no indication Apple is being unreasonable since it asked for the equal issue in Europe.

The EU's deadline for phones to have typical charging is December 2024 – six months before India's. Apple has already told European regulators that it can meet their closing date if older iPhones are exempt. Otherwise, it said it desires at least 18 months to comply. So, it's possibly asking India for the equal exemption or a 12-month put off.