Apple Dominates India's Smartphone Exports With Over $5 Billion In iPhone Shipments In First Seven Months Of FY24

Apple has shipped out iPhones worth over $5 billion from India in the first seven months of FY24, marking a remarkable year-on-year growth rate of 177 percent.

Between April and October of FY23, the company based in Cupertino exported iPhones valued at $1.8 billion through its three Indian vendors.

The total iPhone exports from India for the fiscal year 2022-23 amounted to $5 billion, the report added.

This surge led to an estimation by the industry that India's smartphone exports during the same timeframe reached around $8 billion, maintaining an average monthly rate of over $1 billion.

The value of smartphone exports in the same period last year was $4.97 billion, which is 61 per cent lower than this year.

In its third year of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile devices, Apple is broadening its manufacturing efforts in India. This expansion has led to a substantial rise in the proportion of iPhones being exported from the country as part of the smartphone exports.

During the initial seven months of the 2024 fiscal year, iPhones made up more than 62 per cent of all smartphone exports, with the remainder attributed to Samsung and various other brands, Business Standard reported.

In the 2023 fiscal year, iPhones comprised 45 per cent of the total $11.1 billion smartphone exports, and in the 2022 fiscal year, they represented 22 per cent of the total $5.8 billion exports.

Following the announcement of the Rs 38,645 crore ($4.66 billion) PLI scheme for mobile devices, Apple entered into smartphone manufacturing in India and began large-scale exports from the country.

Multiple iPhone models, including the iPhone 11, 12, 13, 14, and the most recent iPhone 15, are manufactured in India for Apple by units of Taiwanese firms Foxconn and Pegatron in Tamil Nadu, and Wistron, recently acquired by Tata Electronics, in Karnataka.

Tata Electronics is set to become the first Indian firm to join Apple's ecosystem as an iPhone supplier. The company recently announced plans to purchase Wistron for $125 million, obtaining full equity ownership of the assembly lines based in Karnataka.

During 2022-23, a substantial portion of iPhones produced by Pegatron and Wistron were exported from India. Meanwhile, Foxconn, the largest global and Indian iPhone manufacturer, produced a variety of models, including the latest iPhone 15 for both domestic and international markets.

During the previous fiscal year, India saw its smartphone exports surge to over $11.1 billion, marking a twofold increase from FY22. Remarkably, in the initial seven months of the current fiscal year, the exports have already achieved 72 per cent of the previous year's total.

The government's PLI scheme has proven to be highly successful, particularly in the realm of smartphones, propelling India to become the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer after China.

This scheme has also played a pivotal role in India's China-Plus-One strategy. This strategy aims to take advantage of the geopolitical tensions between China and the US, encouraging companies that currently manufacture in China to consider relocating their operations to India.

Should Apple's obligations under the PLI scheme prove successful, they could see a significant shift in their iPhone production to India.

By FY27, it's projected that almost 20 per cent of the iPhone production could be based in India, up from 7 per cent in FY23. This would result in a total production value of $40 billion over a five-year span. Notably, the majority of this production, around 60-70 per cent, would be designated for export.