Apple claims to have invested over €15 billion with more than 700 companies across Germany, during the last five years
Apple is gearing up to open a new design center in Munich, Germany. This design center, as per latest info revealed by the tech giant, will focus on designing wireless semiconductors and software. The company intends to invest €1 billion in developing this design center over the next three years.
“I couldn’t be more excited for everything our Munich engineering teams will discover — from exploring the new frontiers of 5G technology, to a new generation of technologies that bring power, speed, and connectivity to the world,” noted Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
It is to be noted here that Munich is already coined as the Apple’s largest engineering hub in the continent of Europe. The city houses over 1500 Apple employees working on technologies including power management design, wireless and application processors. The company now aims to make Munich its home for European silicon design.
Apple had added silicon engineering sites in Nabern, Kirchheim unter Teck, in 2019, after acquiring Dialog Semiconductor’s power management IC assets. The company claims to have invested over €15 billion with more than 700 companies across Germany, during the last five years. As a matter of fact, about Apple’s half of power management team is located in Germany. Infineon, battery company Varta and DELO are some the companies that Apple has partnered with during the last five years.
The company’s team in Germany have worked on Apple projects including Phone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac with the M1 chip. Apple plans to start moving into the new 30,000-square-meter facility in late 2022.
The new facility, once operational, will be Europe’s largest R&D site for mobile wireless semiconductors and software. Apple’s team will be working on 5G and other future technologies there. The focus at the new facility will be on the integration of hardware and software engineering. Apple teams will also focus on developing, integrating, and optimising wireless modems for Apple products.
Ramping up manufacturing operations in India
Apple has started the assembly of its latest smartphone iPhone 12 in India. It, at the time, is not clear whether which of Apple’s contract manufacturers is assembling these latest iPhone models in the country but a report by Reuters notes that it is Foxconn that is responsible for doing the same.
India is said to be the second largest smartphone market in the world. Apple’s best quarter performance in the country came during Q4 2020. More and more companies are moving away from China. Apple for FY 2020 has reported revenue figures of Rs 13,756 crore. These figures, during FY 2019, stood at Rs 10,674 crore. This 29 per cent year-on-year jump in revenue also represents a jump of nearly 267 per cent in the profits Apple made in India during FY 2020 compared to Fy 2019.
The company, last year, had announced an investment of $13 million (approx Rs 1000 crore) for India. Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron, all the three contract manufacturers of Apple, had got the go-ahead for inclusion in the PLI scheme announced for smartphone manufacturers in India last year
