India has made iPhone manufacturing more attractive by eliminating import duties on key smartphone components, lowering costs for companies assembling devices in the country. Tim Cook in a previous visit to India — image credit: Apple India on July 9 removed import duties of 5% to 7.5% on several components used to manufacture smartphones and other electronics. Covered parts include wireless charging modules and lithium-ion cells. Reuters reported that the exemptions remain in effect through March 31, 2029. The policy could benefit companies including Apple, whose manufacturing partners have steadily expanded iPhone production in India as the company diversifies its global supply chain . Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Apple has held meetings with PrismML about ways it could use the startup's technology to run much larger AI models directly on iPhones, according to The Information . The report said PrismML has managed to shrink down Alibaba's open-source large language model Qwen 3.6 to run entirely on an iPhone 17 Pro. The model has 27 billion parameters, which is larger than Apple's on-device AFM 3 Core Advanced model with 20 billion parameters. Apple's model powers iOS 27 enhancements such as Siri AI's more expressive voices and improved systemwide dictation on iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models. Unlike with AFM 3 Core Advanced, all of Qwen 3.6's parameters can be active at the same time. "One new on-device Apple model has 20 billion parameters but uses a so-called sparse architecture, in which only 1 billion to 4 billion parameters are active at a time," the report said, in reference to AFM 3 Core Advanced. "In the case of PrismML's on-device model, all 27 billion parameters are active at the same time." Larger models running directly on iPhones would allow for more Apple Intelligence features to run on device instead of on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers, which could reduce Apple's costs and further enhance user privacy. Tags: Apple Intelligence , The Information This article, " Apple Exploring Ways to Run Much Larger AI Models Directly on iPhones " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Apple stands to gain from India's decision to eliminate import duties on a range of components used in smartphone manufacturing, in a move that could further lower costs for the company's rapidly growing India-based supply chain. According to a report from Reuters , the Indian government has done away with tariffs of 7.5% and 5% that had applied to inputs for wireless charging hardware, automotive and medical device screens, and lithium-ion battery cells. The exemptions are set to remain in effect through to March 31, 2029. The wireless charging component exemption, in particular, feeds directly into the MagSafe ecosystem used across the iPhone lineup. With import costs on that hardware now removed, Apple's India-based assembly partners have a clearer path to sourcing and building charging components domestically rather than importing them at a markup. Apple has leaned heavily on India as it works to shift iPhone production away from China, with assembly partners now building roughly a quarter of all iPhones in the country and producing the entire iPhone 17 lineup there for the first time, including the higher-end Pro and Pro Max models. Foxconn, one of Apple's main assemblers, poured $1.5 billion into expanding its India operations earlier this year, and Tata Electronics has grown into an equally central manufacturing partner alongside it. Tags: India , MagSafe This article, " Apple's Manufacturing in India Gets Boost From New Tariff Exemptions " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
