According to the latest reports, Wistron, Apple’s Taiwanese manufacturer is looking to hire 10,000 local employees for production of the iPhone 12 in India.

With production slated to begin at the end of the year the multinational conglomerate has reportedly hired 2000 employees already, and will begin functioning from its plant in Narasapura. Wistron plans to invest nearly half a billon dollars in India to ramp up mass-scale production.

Last month Foxconn, Wistron’s long-standing rival, started production on the iPhone 11 at its plant in Chennai. It was the first time Apple manufactured a top-of-the-line model in India. After beginning production on the iPhone 11, Apple is looking at the local production of the iPhone 12 and assembly of iPhone SE (second generation) models.

According to a report in Business Standard, the ‘Made in India’ iPhone 12 will be out by the middle of next year and will be the seventh iPhone to be produced there.

The iPhone 12 is already available for purchase in the US, with prices starting from $829 for an unlocked device with 64GB storage, $879 for 128GB and $979 for 256GB.

The smaller and cheaper iPhone 12 Mini will take a little bit longer to arrive with pre-orders for that variant going live on November 6th – a week before it hits the stores.