Indonesia has banned the sale of the Apple iPhone 16! The Controversy Explained

Due to its failure to comply with local investment restrictions, Indonesia has prohibited the sale of Apple’s iPhone 16. According to the Ministry of Industry, Apple must meet the 40% local content criteria before the smartphone may be sold.

Due to its noncompliance with Indonesia’s local investment criteria, Apple’s most recent iPhone 16 has been prohibited from sale in the Southeast Asian nation. The iPhone 16 cannot be promoted or sold in Indonesia until the Cupertino-based tech giant satisfies the 40% domestic content standards for smartphones and tablets, according to a statement from the country’s Ministry of Industry.

With more than 350 million active smartphone users and 100 million individuals under 30, Indonesia is an attractive market for tech businesses, even though Apple is not one of the top six players in the country. Samsung and Oppo were the two leading companies in the Indonesian smartphone market, per IDC statistics from May.

Why Indonesia has banned the sale of the Apple iPhone 16?

Despite its pledge of 1.7 trillion rupiah, Apple has only invested 1.5 trillion rupiah in Indonesia, according to the country’s Industry Ministry (via Bloomberg). It is noteworthy that Apple does not have any manufacturing facilities in the nation, but competitors such as Xiaomi and Samsung have established their facilities in accordance with Indonesia’s 2017 local content rule.

However, in order to adhere to local laws, Apple has been setting up developer academies in Indonesia since 2018. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, met with former President Joko Widodo and his successor, Prabowo Subianto, during his April visit to Indonesia. Following the discussion, Cook said that Apple is looking into the potential of Widodo’s request for the business to establish a manufacturing unit in the nation.

According to Bloomberg, only 9,000 iPhone 16s have arrived in Indonesia this year, brought in for personal use and not for trade, according to the country’s Industry Ministry.

The initial wave of Apple Intelligence (AI) features, which will be available to the iPhone 16 series and iPhone 15 Pro models through the iOS 18.1 update, were also announced at the same time as the iPhone 16 ban. Numerous noteworthy improvements are included in the latest update, including as call recording, a redesigned Photos app, system-wide writing capabilities, and a more conversational and natural-sounding Siri.

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