In India, tight control of quality clearances for electronic goods from China slowed the import of Apple’s new iPhone model last month and held up other products made by companies like Xiaomi, Reuters reports, citing “two industry sources.”
Applications to the quality control agency, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), typically used to be processed within 15 days, but some are now taking up to two months or longer.
BIS started delaying approvals in August for China-made imports of devices like smartphones, smartwatches and laptops, part of the fallout from deteriorating ties with China after a border clash in June that left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
When Apple’s new iPhone 12 was caught in the delays, Apple India executives called on BIS to speed its approval up, giving assurances that the company would continue to expand its assembly operations in India, the two sources said.
It was not clear how long the iPhone 12 application was delayed… The company has assembly operations in India, but newer models and the iPhone 12 are imported from China, where contract manufacturers make the bulk of Apple’s devices.
MacDailyNews Take: So, for all we know, iPhone 12 could have been slowed in India for all of 12 minutes before Apple made the call and the BIS expedited iPhone 12 since Apple is making a heavy commitment to Prime Minister Modi‘s Make in India initiative.