After China, India is quickly becoming a major production center for smartphones, sharply boosting its percentage of US imports of smartphones, thus threatening China’s historic dominance. Almost one out of every three smartphones imported by the United States during the first five months of 2025 was produced in India, a big jump from only 11 per cent in 2024.
US’ imports of smartphones from India year-on-year increased by threefold to 21.3 million units in the first five months of this year, as reported by the US International Trade Commission (USITC) data. On a value basis, the imports rose by 182 per cent year-on-year to $9.35 billion, already outpacing the approximately $7 billion registered for the entire period of 2024.
India now the new favourite for phone manufacturers
This growth is led primarily by Apple, which has been rapidly shifting its production capacity to India. Apple CEO Tim Cook had hinted in May that a considerable percentage of iPhones sold in the US in the April-June period would come from India. About 20 per cent of Apple’s worldwide iPhone manufacturing capacity is currently located in India, which is a strategic shift boosted by India’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program. The PLI scheme is aimed at strengthening the local smartphone production, urging international brands to have their assembly plants in India.
However, China, which remains the largest exporter of phones, had its proportion of US smartphone imports fall from 82 per cent to 49 per cent between these same months. Approximately 29.4 million smartphones were exported from China to the US during January and May, posting a 27 per cent year-on-year decline and worth approximately $10 billion. India ranked second with a figure of 21.3 million units and Vietnam came third with a total export figure to the US at 8.3 million units, contributing 14 per cent of of the total imports of the country.
Indian supply chains still tag along concerns
That said, the changing trends in smartphone production have not been without their challenges. US President Donald Trump had previously threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Indian-produced iPhones, promoting the return of manufacturing to the United States. Additionally, there are still issues in the supply chain, as revealed by Apple’s most recent official list of suppliers released for 2023, which indicated 157 vendors and suppliers in mainland China versus only 14 in India. The number of Indian suppliers, however, has since increased to 64, indicating a steady but gradual shift.
On the other hand, the Indian government’s initiative to promote domestic production of smartphones is bearing fruit, with Union MoS for Electronics and Information Technology, Jitin Prasada, stating that mobile manufacturing facilities in India have risen to 300 in 2024-25 from the earlier two in 2014-15. At the same time, mobile phone output has risen 28 times to Rs 5.45 lakh crore, with exports rising 127 times to 2 lakh crore.
