During the period of April to November 2022, smartphone shipments from India crossed the Rs 50,000-crore threshold, increasing 110% from the same time last year, at a time when exports in several sectors are either declining or, at best, maintaining flat. Additionally, this is 10% more than the Rs 45,000 crore registered for the entire FY22.
Apple contract manufacturers Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron, all of which are based in Tamil Nadu, as well as Samsung are the key drivers of this enormous expansion.
Nearly 40% of the cellphones worth Rs 50,000 crore that are exported from India are iPhones, which Apple sends to nations in Europe, West Asia, and Asia, excluding China.
The remaining 40% was provided by Samsung and a variety of small exporters, the most of which are Indian device manufacturers.
The government’s smartphone PLI programme, which includes Samsung and Apple’s suppliers, was unveiled in April 2020.
Up until recently, Samsung, which has been making phones in India for more than a decade, was by far the industry leader in terms of exports and manufacture of smartphones. However, Apple surpassed Samsung in November to record shipments over Rs 4,300 crore, the highest figure since the company joined the PLI system in August 2021 with two of its three vendors.
