In hark back to Jobs era, Apple revisits materials, repairability of iPhones, says head of design

Apple’s engineering of this year’s iPhone 17 is, in many ways, based on the same foundations that founder Steve Jobs used to do; This culture continues to work for the company even now.

Dinh, vice president and head of iPhone design, said that at Apple, engineering special materials specifically to produce iPhones takes priority over reducing supply chain costs. Mint. The company has also accelerated its goal to increase the sustainability of energy and raw material supply in the global supply chain, of which India forms a significant part.

“In material selection, it’s more than just the supply chain, it always starts with what the right material is to enable a particular iPhone design and the customer experience we want to deliver. We develop the product around the idea we have, the best material library we have, and the best materials we can custom design,” Dinh said.

“For example, the aluminum in this year’s iPhone comes from the library of materials we use. We combined it with specific manufacturing styles, such as creating a unibody design for performance.”

R&D growth is faster

iPhone sales accounted for nearly half of Apple’s $416 billion in annual revenue, or $209.6 billion, and 68% of its product revenue. Apple’s R&D spending increased by over 10% annually to $34.6 billion; This exceeded 8% of the company’s revenue, outpacing revenue growth of 6.4%.

Dinh highlighted how his employer is prioritizing customer experience in the design of future iPhone brands in order to maintain its position as a global market leader.

“The amount of time we at Apple spend on R&D for a given product is not time-bound and varies across products. It depends on what we’re trying to enable as feature goals, and the most important part of this is that the process always starts with what we pursue as customer experience goals, and we move that through R&D and from there to technology, materials, and manufacturing,” he said.

Tarun Pathak, partner and research director at Counterpoint Research, said such an emphasis on material sourcing is “typical of the focus Apple has always placed on product engineering.” “If you go back to the Steve Jobs era, Apple has always been known for precision engineering, and the perceived halo that has helped Apple find India as a major market also comes from the reputation that it can create products that are well above the level of engineering that other companies are doing,” he said.

ingredients first

Speaking about the company’s 2025 series iPhones, Dinh said Apple is investing in “establishing single-degree control of manufacturing conditions such as temperature to achieve the desired microstructure” to integrate a new temperature control technology. Dinh said this is key to why the newest iPhone has the ability to handle AI applications and large language models on the device.

“We built a custom-designed vapor chamber from 100% recycled components. We also designed a new Apple-designed silicon oxynirite ceramic coating on top of our improved ceramic protection glass, which bonds to the material at the atomic level. This coating adds hardness to make our custom glass three times more scratch-resistant than before,” said Dinh.

Heavy R&D spending is vital for Apple, given its heavy reliance on the iPhone. Apple is expecting a seventh consecutive year of double-digit growth in sales in India, with 15 million iPhones expected to be sold by Apple in India this year. Apple accounted for 18% of all smartphones sold globally in the September quarter. IDC vice president Francisco Jeromino attributed Apple’s growth to “best results achieved in the June quarter” and iPhone 17 pre-orders outpacing previous generations.

To sustain this growth, the company is also doubling down on reparability, Dinh said. “We’ve leveraged R&D to truly increase ease of repair, with innovations like the iPhone battery being easily removed with static-charged adhesive (reducing the chance of damage). Our thermal architecture inside can be removed with just screws. This further increases repairability without the need for a complicated procedure.”

Back to repair

Apple now designs products to be repairable, consider the serviceable aspects of the repair, and have a long lifespan, Dinh said. “…we also make material choices to ensure that the life cycle of an iPhone is durable and can be passed down through the family, making the most of it and avoiding repairs altogether. Material choices, such as proprietary titanium 3D printing, are also made to improve and optimize production,” he added.

Meanwhile, India remains more important to Apple’s global operations. On October 31, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced record revenue from India for the 14th consecutive quarter. The company is also increasing both its retail and manufacturing presence in India. Apple currently has four physical retail stores and is expected to open two more in the coming months.

Manufacturing operations are also increasing. Earlier this year, Apple asked its assembly partners in India to increase their capacity as it opted to supply the US market from markets other than China. Although US President Donald Trump has since increased pressure on Apple to manufacture in the US rather than India, companies such as Tata Electronics are expected to experience a strong boost due to increased iPhone exports from India.

Still, data from market tracker Omdia said iPhone exports approached 24 million units in the first six months of this financial year, with the export value exceeding $10 billion.

green focus

While Apple did not comment specifically on its India operations for design and material sourcing, Apple iPhone product manager Will True added that the company has set sustainability targets for all its global manufacturing and supply chain vendors.

“We are trying to increase the amount of recycled materials in our products… we are sourcing materials and working with manufacturing partners around the world, ensuring that the entire supply chain worldwide runs on renewable energy in factories globally. The percentage of sustainability varies from product to product and is based on material choices, scale of operation and even perception of the volumes we work with,” he added.