Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has sought to position South Asia's third-largest economy as a hub of smartphone manufacturing, courting global players with access to a market with over a billion wireless connections and cheap labor.

This effort has met with some success, as global smartphone giants, including Samsung and the Chinese group Oppo, have grown rapidly in India and outsourcing manufacturers such as Foxconn have stepped up their domestic operations.

Apple Inc.'s high-end iPhones, assembled in India by the local Foxconn unit, are expected to arrive in Indian stores next month, a source said, potentially helping the tech giant lower prices on the second global smartphone market. Some approvals are pending, but iPhone XR and iPhone XS devices manufactured in India are expected to hit the market in August, the source said, asking not to be named, as the case is not public.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Foxconn said not to comment on customers or their products.

The expansion of the local assembly will save Apple the high taxes it charges on importing fully-built devices, as well as meet local procurement standards for opening its own retail stores in India.

Apple's devices are coveted by millions of Indians, but its high price has limited its market share to a mere one hundred (1%) in favor of rivals such as the Chinese OnePlus.

Reuters previously announced that the local unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., known as Foxconn, would begin assembling the iPhone X family devices in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India this year. . Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Also assembles iPhone SE, iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 models cheaply in India through the local Wistron Corp unit in the Bengaluru Technology Center. .

"Local production will give Apple the leeway it needs to play with the margins of its distributors and indirectly reduce the price of its phones," said Rushabh Doshi, research director at Canalys, a technology consulting firm.

Beyond the satisfaction of local demand, companies such as Apple could also use India as an export hub to mitigate the effects of a deadly trade war between the United States and China, according to reports. technological analysts.

Apple has reduced its revenue forecast for the first fiscal quarter, due to the slowdown in iPhone sales in China, where uncertainties surrounding US-China trade relations have hurt the economy.

Some of the assembled Wistron's, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 7, are being exported from India to European markets, said Neil Shah of Counterpoint, Hong-King-based technology researcher.