Apple Inc. has significantly boosted its iPhone exports from India, reporting a one-third increase in the six months leading up to September. The company exported nearly $6 billion worth of India-made iPhones, marking a substantial rise compared to the previous year. This trend suggests that annual exports could exceed the projected $10 billion for fiscal 2024, Bloomberg reported.
As part of its strategy to diversify manufacturing away from China, Apple is rapidly expanding its presence in India, leveraging local subsidies, a skilled workforce, and advancements in technology.
Three major suppliers—Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp., and India’s Tata Electronics—are involved in assembling iPhones in southern India. Notably, Foxconn’s local facility near Chennai is the leading contributor, responsible for half of the country’s iPhone exports.
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group’s electronics manufacturing arm exported about $1.7 billion in iPhones from its factory in Karnataka state from April to September, the people said. Tata acquired this unit from Wistron Corp. last year, becoming the first Indian assembler of Apple’s bestselling product.
iPhones account for the bulk of India’s smartphone exports and helped the product category become the top export to the US at $2.88 billion in the first five months of this fiscal year, according to federal trade ministry data. Five years ago, before Apple expanded manufacturing in India, the country’s annual smartphone exports to the US were a meager $5.2 million.
Still, Apple accounts for just under 7% of India’s smartphone market, which is dominated by Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. And while still a small market for iPhones globally, Apple is making big bets.
The subsidies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration helped Apple assemble its pricey iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models, with better cameras and titanium bodies, in India this year. It’s also seeking to open new retail stores, including in the southern tech hub of Bangalore and western city of Pune.
The grand openings, the marketing blitz around the new stores, an aggressive online sales push as well as a rapidly growing middle class that aspires to own Apple products boosted its annual India revenue to a record of $8 billion in the year through March.
India sales could reach $33 billion by 2030, we calculate, fueled primarily by rising middle-class purchasing power and a greater use of payment plans, Bloomberg analyses.
