iPhone Sales Block "Not Enough" Despite Apple's $100 Million Investment Offer

With the Indonesian government, the world's fourth-largest population, banning the sale of Apple's iPhone 16, it said Apple's $100 million (about 140 billion won) investment proposal for iPhone resale was not enough.

Indonesian Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang said Apple had offered to invest $100 million in Indonesia to build a manufacturing plant that would produce accessories and some parts, but the review concluded it was insufficient compared to other countries and said Apple's proposal did not meet the "fairness" principle.

Agus pointed out that Apple invested $15 billion (about 21 trillion won) to build manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, which has an annual sales of about 1.5 million units, but only 1.5 trillion rupiah (about 132 billion won) was invested in Indonesia, which sells 2.5 million units, for education facilities for application developers.

He also stressed that competitors such as Samsung Electronics and Xiaomi have invested 8 trillion rupiah (about 740 billion won) and 55 trillion rupiah (about 4.84 trillion won) in Indonesia to produce mobile phones in Korea.

The top priority is to have Apple set up an iPhone production plant in Indonesia, he said, adding, "I want Apple to send a negotiation team."

In order to grow the manufacturing industry, Indonesia regulates that smartphones, laptops, and tablet PCs sold in the country contain more than 40% of domestic parts.

Apple promised to invest 1.71 trillion rupiah (about KRW 150.5 billion) in Indonesia to operate an app development education facility to avoid this regulation, but the Indonesian government recently banned the sale of iPhone 16 after Apple's investment amounted to only about 1.5 trillion rupiah.

Although Apple ranks fifth in the Indonesian smartphone market, it is considered one of the most important markets for smartphone manufacturers as it uses about 350 million smartphones, more than 280 million people.