- ⏰ 6 hours ago
- Julian Russo
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React
For 2 years, Apple has activated the end of dependence on made in China, the Cupertino company has understood that betting everything on a particular country can be complicated when it encounters difficulties such as an increase in Covid cases. -19. While India seemed to be one of the only alternatives for assembling iPhones, Apple surprises us with manufacturing the iPhone 13… in Brazil!
iPhone 13 assembly lands in Brazil
According to a recent report, Apple has started manufacturing the iPhone 13 in Brazil, the company has chosen to produce only this model and to do not include iPhone 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.
Without official communication from Apple’s spokesperson, this new unreleased production was discovered by a Brazilian customer who recently bought an iPhone 13. While he expected to see the traditional “made in China” , João Menicucci saw on the packaging of his new smartphone the mention “made in Brazil”.
Surprised by this revelation, Menicucci wanted to see further by looking into the settings of his iPhone in the “general” section then in “information”, at this place we observe the model number. At the end of it, you can find the country in which the iPhone you are holding was made.
Here is the model number that the Brazilian customer found: MLPF3BR/Athe termination of this one has never been seen before on an iPhone 13, it ends with the identifier “BR/A” which means that the production does indeed come from a factory located in Brazil.
When we look in more detail, we see that Apple was able to take advantage of one of its historical partner’s factories: foxconn. Indeed, the Chinese company has a (fairly recent) factory on the side of Jundiai in Sao Paulo. This is a structure that daily hosts several hundred employees who assemble competing products to those of Apple.
In addition, this find from the Brazilian customer is confirmed with the official documentation of the iPhone 13 which is forwarded to ANATEL (the Brazilian telecommunications regulator), according to MacMagazine, Apple has added “Foxconn Brazil” as one of the manufacturing plants for the iPhone 13 line.
Why local production?
All indications suggest that Apple has adopted the same strategy than in India, in other words local manufacturing for local marketing. The iPhone 13s that are produced in Brazil are intended to be redirected to Apple Store and resellers Brazilians exclusively.
Apple’s desire is clearly not to supply the global market, the Californian giant prefers leave china maintain this role for the time being.
This Apple technique could have been put in place to lower the costs of the latest iPhones that are sold in Brazil. As we have seen previously, Apple products are famous for having excessively high prices in Brazil. Take for example the iPhone SE 3, it is available at 760.53€ there when in France we have it from 529€.
With this approach, Apple avoids the costs generated by exporting from China to Brazil, as well as the taxes which are applied to imported products once they arrive at the Brazilian border.
Another advantage, the government of Jair Bolsonaro has proposed a tax reduction to all companies that choose local production rather than in another country. Bottom line, companies like Apple are encouraged to be produced in Brazil, which makes it possible to create new jobs and make a positive contribution to the country’s economy!