For five months, Indonesians were cut off from Apple’s iPhone 16 models amid a standoff between the tech giant and a newly emboldened Indonesian government. The conflict arose when the government banned the device’s sale, citing Apple’s failure to comply with local manufacturing mandates. The strategy seems to have worked: Apple eventually upped its investment in Indonesia to $1 billion, a massive leap from its original $10 million proposal.
Faris Mokhtar for Bloomberg News:
As part of the investment, Apple will set up a local AirTag factory and another plant producing components for AirPods. It will also invest in a software research and development centre.
The iPhone 16 family will soon be licensed for sale in the country and the authorities can claim a victory in pushing a global tech behemoth to share the benefits of operating in its consumer market of of 278 million people.
Indonesia had been the last major emerging market where Apple didn’t already have local production. India, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil all have large populations and manufacture Apple goods locally.
With this outcome, Indonesia could be setting a template for other emerging economies. Not all can leverage as large a population, to be sure, but all countries are interested in moving up the value chain in manufacturing — they want their workforces to learn how to design, not just assemble, advanced electronics. Whether it’s the potential for sales growth or, as in Indonesia’s case, natural resources, we now have more evidence that governments can negotiate better terms with multinationals.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in December, “This is how the game is played. If Apple wants access to a lucrative market, the lucrative market can (and should) demand something in return.”
Good to see this rectified as Indonesia is a huge market with a population of over 280 million people as of 2024. – MacDailyNews, February 25, 2025
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The U.S. government should do the same to Apple. Make your products in America or go sell your Chinese made junk elsewhere!
Apple just agreed to a $500B investment in American manufacturing.
Now, the US government should do the exact same …. if we are buying Indonesian products, and if Indonesia is charging unequal tariffs, then we should REQUIRE local investment from those companies and impose exactly equal tariffs on products entering the USA.
I believe Indonesia is playing fair by asking Apple to pony up, as does India, but the problem has always been it is always one-sided.
Never, ever again.
Trump is on our side and no more adled, senile, bumbling, tripping, idiotic fool Biden types as president EVER again.