Ever since the coronavirus outbreak began in December last year, Apple has had to face a lot of trouble. Its largest manufacturing partner Foxconn shut down its biggest iPhone factory in China to safeguard its employees from the COVID-19 infection. This was followed by closure of Apple's retail stores in the country. The stores reopened once the coronavirus situation eased by early March.
As soon as the COVID-19 outbreak spread to other parts of the world and was declared a pandemic, Apple announced closure of all its Apple Stores outside of Greater China till March 27, which was later extended indefinitely.
Apple announced on March 25 that it hopes to reopen all its 458 stores worldwide in the first half of April or in time for Easter. Foxconn's Chinese factories have already started churning out iPhones in full capacity.
Apple's Indian iPhone plants suspend production
Apple's manufacturing partners Foxconn and Wistron Corp have now temporarily suspended production at their Indian plants, in order to comply with a nationwide lockdown called by the Indian government in its effort to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the country of 1.3 billion.
Both Foxconn and Wistron have factories in India apart from China and Vietnam. The plants are responsible for the assembly of some older iPhone models such as the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7 and the iPhone XR.
According to Bloomberg News, Foxconn, which is also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., will be suspending operations at its Indian plant until April 14. The company added that it intends to resume production as per further announcements by the Indian government.
Wistron Corp, which manufactures some key iPhone components at its Indian plant in the south Indian city of Bengaluru, told Bloomberg that it was also adhering to the government's order. The company's representative declined to reveal which products will be affected by the shutdown.
India's efforts to stop coronavirus spread
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in a televised address to the nation on the evening of Tuesday March 24. The lockdown is the biggest isolation effort by the country.
Apple also has an office in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad where thousands of employees work on developing Apple Maps. It looks like they too will be impacted by the lockdown.
