India's Smartphone Export Boom Sets Blueprint for Manufacturing Growth
- India now accounts for 44% of US smartphone imports in Q1 FY26, up from 13% last year, overtaking China.
- Driven by Apple’s 'China Plus One' strategy, India’s 'Made-in-India' smartphone exports grew 240% YoY.
- Amitabh Kant urges India to replicate this success across 10 other manufacturing sectors by integrating into global supply chains.
India has rapidly emerged as a major hub for smartphone exports, now accounting for 44 percent of all smartphone shipments to the United States in Q1 FY26 a significant jump from just 13 percent in the same period last year. This impressive growth has propelled India ahead of China, whose share in US smartphone imports fell sharply from 61 percent to 25 percent during the same period.
Amitabh Kant, Non-Executive Director on the Board of InterGlobe Aviation and former G20 Sherpa and CEO of NITI Aayog, highlighted this remarkable achievement in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "India’s share of smartphone imports in the USA has jumped 44 per cent YoY in the last three months till June. It has overtaken China, whose share in US imports of smartphones has fallen significantly,” he noted.
Kant emphasized the importance of replicating this export success across ten other manufacturing sectors. He urged Indian manufacturers to partner with global companies and become a critical part of global supply chains, a strategy that could significantly boost India’s industrial growth and global competitiveness.
The surge in India’s smartphone exports is primarily attributed to Apple’s aggressive 'China Plus One' strategy, aimed at reducing dependency on Chinese manufacturing amid rising geopolitical tensions. Apple has scaled up its production capacity in India, with most of its export output catering to the US market in 2025. The tech giant has even commenced manufacturing Pro models of the upcoming iPhone 16 series in India, although scaled production for these models in the US still depends heavily on Chinese facilities.
Other major players such as Samsung and Motorola have also begun shifting portions of their US-targeted manufacturing to India. However, their transitions remain limited in scale. While Samsung relies mainly on Vietnam for production, Motorola continues to base most of its operations in China.
According to industry reports, US smartphone shipments rose by 1 percent in Q2 2025, as vendors built up inventories amid uncertainty surrounding future tariffs and ongoing negotiations with China. Apple aggressively increased its inventory stock at the end of Q1 and maintained it in Q2. Samsung, too, boosted its shipments, growing 38 percent year-on-year, driven largely by its popular Galaxy A-series.
The data underscores a broader trend of supply chain diversification, positioning India as a preferred manufacturing alternative in an evolving global trade landscape.
