The Indonesian government is blocking the sale of Apple’s latest iPhone 16 models, citing a failure by the fruit company to meet local investment requirements. The country claims that the company has only invested 1.5 trillion rupiah or US$95 million (~RM415 million), 200 billion rupiah short its required 1.7 trillion rupiah or US$107 million (~RM467 million).
Because of this, the iPhone 16, which launched back in September, cannot be marketed in Indonesia. While this is will no doubt cause a dent in Apple’s revenue from the country, that dent is hardly likely to cause a rupture in its global income stream. While the iPhone 16 models are currently banned, older iPhone models can still be sold and purchased within the country.
As pointed out by Bloomberg, Indonesia has a dossier on using trade restrictions on foreign companies, Apple being one of them. Its goal is to have said companies set up factories and facilities domestically, although the move hasn’t always been successful.
In the fruit company’s case, the company has already constructed four developer academies, rather than establishing a local manufacturing facility, with Tim Cook, CEO of the company, saying in April that it was looking into the “feasibility of doing so”.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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