India’s smartphone exports exploded in FY25 and continued strong into August 2025, lifting the sector into the country’s export elite. Total smartphone exports for FY25 reached approximately US$24.14 billion, with August 2025 exports at US$1.53 billion (up 39% YoY). The surge is concentrated in US‑bound shipments and is overwhelmingly driven by iPhone production in India and the contract manufacturers that assemble them. This article explains how the surge happened, provides a company ranking with estimated export values, explores the benefits to India, assesses global impact, and sets out risks and actionable recommendations for sustaining growth.
How the export surge happened (Smartphone exports exploded)
- Policy catalysts: The Production‑Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and Make in India continuity created a predictable, attractive investment backdrop. PLI specifically rewarded scale and localization, making high‑volume smartphone assembly economically feasible and accelerating large capital allocations from global OEMs and contract manufacturers (CMs).
- Nearshoring and geopolitics: Brands diversified away from a single dominant hub for assembly to mitigate geopolitical, tariff and pandemic risks. Companies seeking alternative, high‑capacity bases found India’s large labor pool, improving logistics, and incentive architecture compelling.
- Apple‑led value concentration: iPhones have a much higher average selling price (ASP) than most Android models. Even with fewer unit shipments relative to lower‑end phones, iPhones dominate export dollar totals. Apple’s decision to scale India assembly translated into outsized export value compared with unit volumes.
- CM scale and speed: Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron and other CMs ramped capacity quickly, optimizing lines for export markets, building export documentation processes, and coordinating global logistics to ship Made‑in‑India devices to the US and other developed markets.
- Market timing and seasonal cycles: Model launches, inventory rationalization, and festival demand interact with factory retrofit cycles. Concentrated shipping windows for new iPhone generations drove spikes in particular months, while longer‑term capacity additions raised average monthly export baselines. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Company ranking and estimated export values (FY25)
Methodology note: The FY25 aggregate export base is US$24.14 billion. The ranking below attributes that total across brand and manufacturing players using industry share signals, reported CM shipment anecdotes, and reasonable allocation where public granular company invoicing is unavailable. Dollar values for some manufacturing players are expressed as ranges to reflect attribution uncertainty. (Smartphone exports exploded)
- Rank 1 — Apple (India-made iPhones, brand-level): US$16.9 billion
- Rationale: iPhones accounted for the majority share of export dollar value due to high ASP and large US demand. Apple, as the brand, sits at the top of value ranking even where contract manufacturers physically export devices.
- Rank 2 — Foxconn (contract manufacturer): US$5.0–6.5 billion
- Rationale: Foxconn operates India’s largest CM facilities by footprint and shipment volume, often appearing on export documentation and driving significant throughput for Apple.
- Rank 3 — Wistron (contract manufacturer): US$1.0–2.5 billion
- Rationale: Wistron’s India ramps contributed materially to iPhone exports and secondary OEM assembly for other brands.
- Rank 4 — Pegatron (contract manufacturer): US$0.5–1.5 billion
- Rationale: Growing presence in India, handling a portion of Apple production and other OEM contracts.
- Rank 5 — Samsung (brand/India exports): US$0.4–1.2 billion
- Rationale: Samsung’s India production serves both domestic demand and exports, particularly in mid and premium segments outside Apple’s domain.
- Rank 6 — Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, Realme, Others (combined): US$0.5–1.6 billion (combined)
- Rationale: Collectively these OEMs export across multiple emerging markets and price tiers; their combined unit volumes matter for employment and logistics, though dollar share is smaller than Apple’s.
Explanation: Contract manufacturers capture shipping volumes and often appear as the exporting entity on customs paperwork, yet brand‑level value attribution (Apple) is dominant because of product pricing and global market demand. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Why this ranking matters
- Dollar vs unit dynamics: High‑ASP models (iPhones) skew export dollar totals toward brands even if they are not the largest by unit volumes. For India, that means export revenue growth can outstrip unit growth, improving trade metrics without necessarily signifying proportional unit‑market share gains.
- Operational vs economic ownership: CMs like Foxconn handle logistics, quality and physical exports, while the brand captures value through pricing and global distribution — both roles are essential, and policy should recognize and incentivize higher value chain participation beyond assembly.
- Data attribution complexity: Customs data, invoicing practices and intercompany routing can obscure exact per‑company totals; ranges account for these reporting differences and provide a robust view of economic reality. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Benefits to India (Smartphone exports exploded)
- Economic uplift: A roughly US$24 billion smartphone export sector materially improves export receipts, narrows trade composition imbalance, and contributes to manufacturing GDP. Export earnings translate into higher foreign exchange inflows and strengthen India’s position in global electronics trade.
- Employment and skills: Assembly plants, component makers, testing labs, logistics firms and packaging suppliers generate tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The skills developed in quality control, precision assembly and supplier management are transferable to higher‑value electronics and adjacent industries.
- Supplier ecosystem growth: As volume stabilizes, component makers (PCBs, displays, casings, testing equipment) establish local footprints, creating cluster effects that reduce lead times and improve margins captured domestically.
- Attracting FDI and innovation: Successful large‑scale assembly signals policy credibility and operational capability, encouraging both foreign and domestic investors to consider India for higher value segments including R&D and regional distribution centers.
- Strategic and geopolitical advantages: Diversifying global supply chains away from concentrated geographies improves resilience for global buyers and gives India strategic leverage in negotiating further industrial partnerships.
Global impact (Smartphone exports exploded)
- Supply‑chain resilience: India’s rise reduces the world’s exposure to a single dominant manufacturing geography, distributing shock risk and allowing multinationals to balance capacity across regions.
- Logistics and after‑sales transformation: Shifting origin points to India requires global logistics, warranty and repair networks to adapt, creating new service opportunities and regional hubs for parts and repairs.
- Competitive dynamics: Neighboring manufacturing hubs and component suppliers may face pressure to upgrade incentives or capabilities to retain business, sparking regional improvements in manufacturing infrastructure.
- Potential for component relocation: If India can accelerate localization of high‑value components, global suppliers will co‑locate production, reshaping supply footprints in semiconductors, camera modules and other higher-margin parts. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Risks and constraints
- Customer concentration: Heavy reliance on one brand (Apple) and one major destination (US) increases vulnerability to product cycles, demand shocks or strategic shifts by that buyer.
- Limited domestic value capture: High‑value components remain largely imported; assembly is the primary domestic activity today. Without faster component localization, India risks earning only assembly margins while much product value accrues elsewhere.
- Infrastructure and supplier gaps: Logistics bottlenecks, intermittent power supply in cluster areas, and a still‑maturing tier‑2 supplier base could constrain future scaling.
- Policy continuity and competitiveness: Investors need predictable long‑term policies; sudden changes to incentives, tariffs or compliance regimes could disrupt planned capital flows. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Actionable recommendations
- For policymakers: Move incentives beyond assembly to targeted support for component manufacturing and testing equipment; invest in dedicated electronics corridors with stable power and logistics; fund skill development linked to higher‑value production roles.
- For manufacturers and brands: Diversify export destinations and product portfolios to reduce single‑customer risk; invest in local supplier development programs to accelerate localization of high‑value inputs; design flexible lines to handle rapid model changes without lengthy downtimes.
- For investors and suppliers: Prioritize investments in component fabs, camera modules, battery and PCB manufacturing near assembly parks; offer financing and supplier development programs to grow tier‑2 ecosystems and capture greater value domestically. (Smartphone exports exploded)
Conclusion and outlook – (Smartphone exports exploded)
India’s smartphone export surge is structural, not a one‑off: policy consistency, rapid CM ramp‑ups and global buyers’ desire to diversify production combined to produce a dramatic shift in global phone supply chains. The immediate benefits to India are significant — from export receipts to jobs and foreign investment — but sustaining and deepening those gains requires moving beyond assembly toward higher domestic value capture, ensuring infrastructure keeps pace, and diversifying export markets and product portfolios. If India executes on these fronts, the country will not only maintain its role as a major smartphone factory but will also become a center for higher‑value electronics manufacturing, permanently altering global trade maps.
