Apple's Indian supplier starts making parts for AirPods

One of Apple's key suppliers has started producing components for the AirPods in India, marking an important step in Apple's push to expand production in the country.

The Indian subsidiary of Jabil Inc. has begun shipping plastic casings for the AirPods to China and Vietnam, where Apple's wireless earbuds are largely assembled, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.

Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint, said: "Manufacturing the case is usually the first step in full-scale production of AirPods. Now that Apple has received initial approval from a number of suppliers, including Luxshare Precision, they are obviously building a supply chain for the final product.

It is reported that Apple is expanding production in India to reduce its dependence on China. Apple's production capacity in India has so far been limited to iPhones, making the AirPods the second Apple product to be partially produced in India. Apple wants to boost production in India to about a quarter of its global output, an Indian official said on Tuesday, as the U.S. tech giant seeks to diversify from a major manufacturing hub.

India's strengths include rising geopolitical tensions between Western countries and mainland China, and India is expected to become the world's fastest-growing large economy within the next three years. But experts warn that for India, home to 1.4 billion people, there is still a long way to go to improve lasting gains in a sluggish manufacturing sector.