New Delhi:

Tata Electronics has agreed to buy a majority stake in Taiwanese contract manufacturer Pegatron’s only iPhone plant in India, forming a new joint venture that strengthens Tata’s position as an Apple supplier, two sources told Reuters.

Under the deal announced internally last week, Tata will hold 60% and run daily operations under the joint venture, while Pegatron will hold the rest and provide technical support, said the two sources, who declined to be named as the details are not yet public.

The sources did not elaborate on the financials of the deal.

Tata declined to comment, while Apple and Pegatron did not respond to Reuters queries on Sunday.

Reuters was the first to report in April that Pegatron had the backing of Apple and was holding advanced talks to sell its only iPhone plant in India to Tata, marking the Taiwanese firm’s latest scale back of its Apple partnership.

Apple is increasingly looking to diversify its supply chain beyond China amid geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. For Tata, the Chennai Pegatron plant will bolster its iPhone manufacturing plans.

Tata has been fast expanding into iPhone manufacturing, rivaling the only other iPhone contract manufacturer operating in India, Foxconn.

The announcement for the deal’s closure was made internally at the iPhone plant on Friday, said the first source. The second source said the two companies plan to file for an approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the coming days.

Tata already operates an iPhone assembly plant in Karnataka, which it took over from Taiwan’s Wistron last year. It is also building another in Hosur in Tamil Nadu, where it also has an iPhone component plant which was involved in a fire incident in September.

Analysts estimate India will contribute 20-25% of total iPhone shipments this year, from 12-14% last year.

The Tata-Pegatron plant, which has around 10,000 employees and makes 5 million iPhones annually, will be Tata’s third iPhone factory in India.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Apple is working on releasing an update for the iPhone 12. (File)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Apple said on Tuesday it planned to comply with France’s radiation testing requirements by rolling out an update that will stop the iPhone 12 from using more power when the device is in contact with static surfaces.

Apple has disputed the findings of French regulators who said that the iPhone 12, which has been on the market for three years, gave off more than permissible amounts of radiation and halted sales of the device.

On Tuesday, Apple gave its fullest explanation yet of the discrepancy between France’s findings and those in other countries where the iPhone 12 has been approved for sale.

In an article posted on its website, Apple said that for more than a decade, iPhones have included sensors that allow the phone to detect when it is near a user’s body to keep transmission power at lower levels. When the phone is not near a body – such as when it is laid on a table – the device uses slightly higher levels of transmission power.

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Apple said that the testing protocol used by L’Agence Nationale des Frequences did not take this feature into account. The company issued a software update that will become broadly available to users in France this month that turns off the body-detection technology, keeping the phone at lower transmission power levels at all times.

In a statement, Apple said that the iPhone 12 is still safe to use even without the software update.

“We want all iPhone 12 users to know that iPhone 12 is safe to use and always has been. IPhone 12 was certified to meet applicable worldwide energy transmission regulations and standards when it first shipped in 2020 and no changes have been made since then that would affect energy transmission,” Apple said in the statement.

Representational image of man talking on a phone outside an Apple store in Shanghai, China
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China has not issued a ban on the purchase and use of foreign phone brands, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, in response to media reports that said some government agencies and firms had told staff to stop using Apple’s iPhones at work.

“China has not issued laws, regulations or policy documents that prohibit the purchase and use of foreign brand phones such as Apple’s,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing when asked about the reports.

“But recently we did notice a lot of media exposure of security incidents related to Apple’s phones. The Chinese government attaches great importance to information and cyber security and treats both domestic and foreign companies as equals,” she added.

Reuters recently reported that China had widened existing curbs on the use of iPhones by state employees, telling staff at some central government agencies to stop using their Apple mobiles at work.

The supposed ban coincides with rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, and signals growing challenges for Apple, which relies heavily on China for revenue growth and manufacturing.

Ms. Mao said China hoped all mobile phone companies would strictly abide its laws and regulations, as well as “strengthen information security management”.

China has increasingly emphasised using locally-made tech products, as technology has become a major national security issue for Beijing and Washington.