Apple-led shift makes India largest smartphone exporter to US, pipping China

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India has, for the first time, overtaken China as the leading supplier of smartphones to the United States, according to research firm Canalys. The milestone, achieved in the  June quarter, has been driven by Apple’s aggressive ramp-up of iPhone production in India amid lingering trade tensions and tariff squabbles between the US and China.

India-assembled smartphones made up 44 percent of US imports in Q2 2025, a big jump from 13 percent a year ago. China’s share plunged from 61 percent to 25 percent during the period. The 240 percent year-on-year jump in India-made smartphone shipments marks a dramatic shift in global supply chains.

“India became the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the US for the very first time in Q2 2025, largely driven by Apple’s accelerated supply chain shift to India amid an uncertain trade landscape between the US and China,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys (now part of Omdia).

Apple has been at the forefront of this shift, using India as a key export base for iPhones, especially in 2025. While the company has begun assembling iPhone 16 Pro models in India, it still depends on its Chinese facilities for the large-scale supply of these premium devices to the US. Base iPhone models, however, are now being exported in significantly higher volumes from India.

Apple’s shift is part of its broader “China Plus One” strategy, aimed at reducing its over-reliance on the world’s second biggest economy amid geopolitical uncertainty. The company frontloaded inventory in the first half of 2025 to hedge against the possibility of tariffs, building up US-bound shipments rapidly in March.

Other vendors such as Samsung and Motorola have also begun supplying more smartphones from India, though their moves remain modest in comparison to Apple’s.

“Motorola, similar to Apple, has its core manufacturing hub in China, whereas Samsung relies mainly on producing its smartphones in Vietnam,” Chaurasia said.

Despite these supply chain shifts and a 38 percent year-on-year rise in Samsung’s US-bound shipments — largely driven by its Galaxy A-series — overall smartphone shipments to the US rose just 1 percent in the June quarter.

"Vendors continue to frontload devices and maintain high inventory levels to best cope with the risk of tariffs coming into play later in the year,” said Runar Bjorhovde, senior analyst at Canalys.

“Yet, the market only grew 1 percent, indicating tepid demand in an increasingly pressured economic environment and a widening gap between sell-in and sell-through.”

Even if smartphones remain exempt from US tariffs, many other consumer electronics are likely to be affected, potentially curbing household spending and keeping smartphone demand subdued in the second half of the year.

Apple exported more than $5 billion worth of iPhones from India in Q1 FY26 (April–June), accounting for nearly 70 percent of India’s smartphone exports, a July 18 Moneycontrol report said. In the previous year, the firm exported phones worth $3 billion.

With Foxconn and Tata Electronics ramping up production, India’s overall smartphone exports topped $7 billion in the June quarter, a 40 percent year-on-year increase, solidifying the country’ rise as a critical hub for high-value smartphone manufacturing.