Apple has outpaced rival Samsung to become the first company to export smartphones worth $1 billion or Rs 8,100 crore in a month from India, says a report by The Economic Times (ET). December was also a record month for the smartphone industry with mobile phone exports of over Rs 10,000 crore, data showed, the report added.
It should be noted that California-headquartered Apple and South Korean tech giant Samsung have been the top mobile exporters in India. Samsung dominated mobile phone exports, but Apple, in November, pipped Samsung to become the biggest exporter from the country. Apple is currently assembling the iPhone 14, 12, 13 and 14 Plus models in India.
According to government officials, the total exports would have been higher if Samsung’s production unit had been working at its full capacity. However, it was shut for about 15 days last month for regular maintenance, the ET report added.
Meanwhile, analysts at JP Morgan have recently said that Apple will expand its local manufacturing capacity in India to produce 25 per cent of all iPhones by 2025.
Apple has three assembly partners in India: Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron and all of them are participating in the government’s Product Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and their production is expected to grow in the coming years, Counterpoint Research recently told ABP Live.
India contributed to 3-4 per cent of iPhone manufacturing globally in CY2021 and Counterpoint Research believes it to grow and reach 7-8 per cent by CY2023.
After assembling iPhones in India for the past few years Apple has now started working to start production of the iPad lineup in the country. The Cupertino, California-headquartered tech giant has been in talks with Indian officials for locating some iPad manufacturing in the country, a report said last month. This comes as relations between the US and China have turned sour and the latter’s zero Covid restrictions have disrupted supply chains.