iPhone maker Apple witnessed its best year in India in 2022 with its ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments growing 65% YoY in terms of volume and over two times in terms of value largely due to an increase in demand for premium phones, according to data by Counterpoint.
The reasons for the significant growth in Apple’s shipments during the year can be attributed to the production-linked incentive scheme in which its contract manufacturers Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron, and Pegatron are the participants. The company’s contribution in terms of value to ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments also increased to 25% in 2022, from 12% in 2021.
Apple’s EMS (electronics manufacturing services) partners Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron were among the top 10 EMS players in India in 2022 in terms of volume. In terms of value, Foxconn Hon Hai and Wistron led the EMS landscape, according to Counterpoint. Both Foxconn and Wistron have also received the PLI incentive in the recent disbursements.
In 2022, the ‘Made in India’ smartphone market registered a growth of 34% YoY in terms of value. However, in terms of volume the market declined 3% YoY to 188 million units. The major factor behind this decline was the softening of consumer demand due to macroeconomic headwinds, especially in the second half of the year, Counterpoint said.
“The high inventory, which has impacted the overall supply of smartphones, is now being felt at the manufacturing level. However, the premiumisation trend is benefitting some of the manufacturers,” said Prachir Singh, senior analyst at Counterpoint. “The growth was also fuelled by increasing exports from Apple. In terms of overall exports, a volume growth of 37% YoY was witnessed,” Singh added.
During the year, the contribution of exports in the total ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments reached the highest ever both in terms of volume and value terms at 20% and 30%, respectively.
Among other brands, OPPO led the ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments in 2022 with a 22% share, followed by Samsung at 21% share, data suggests.
Bharat FIH, which makes smartphones for Xiaomi remained the top EMS player for smartphone manufacturing in 2022, followed by Dixon which manufactures Samsung phones. Dixon’s arm Padget, with the Motorola portfolio, emerged as one of the fastest growing EMS players in 2022, registering 70% YoY growth in terms of manufacturing shipments.
“The increasing exports from Apple, Samsung and other OEMs drove the locally manufactured shipments in 2022 and somewhat offset the impact of the local demand decline. The recent disbursement of PLI incentives from the government as well as other initiatives, both at the central and state levels, has boosted the overall local manufacturing,” said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint.
In the feature phone segment, Lava led the ‘Made in India’ shipments with 29% share, according to Counterpoint.
