Apple makes about 25% of iPhones in India

Apple increased iPhone production in India by about 53% in 2025 and now has roughly 25% of its iPhones assembled there, people familiar with the matter said.

It assembled about 55 million iPhones in India in 2025, up from 36 million a year earlier, while global output is about 220 to 230 million a year.

The shift has been aided by Narendra Modi’s production-linked incentives, but assembly and component costs in India remain higher than in China and Vietnam.

Tariffs in the US on shipments from China in 2025 prompted Apple and suppliers to move more devices destined for the US to other sites, with India taking a larger share.

Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup is now assembled in India by its contract manufacturers, including Foxconn Technology Group, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron Corp., as the company expands local component sourcing and prepares to launch Apple Pay in India later this year.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

A homegrown champion and a ticking clock shape India’s iPhone production boom

Tata Group has become an iPhone assembler, and it is the first Indian company inside Apple’s historically China-centric iPhone supply chain 1.
It is expanding capacity by buying plants from Taiwanese firms Wistron and Pegatron 2.
Much of this push relies on India’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which ends on March 31, 2026 3.
If incentives lapse, India would face a cost gap of about 10% versus Vietnam and 15% versus China, which could slow growth 4.

The supply chain shift runs deeper and may depend on incentives

Apple’s move ties to a broader shift away from China, and one research paper in the source set puts Apple’s China output down 32% from 2022 to 2025 5.
The change is moving past final assembly, with Foxconn (a major Apple contract manufacturer) saying it will invest $1.5 billion in its Indian subsidiary through its Singapore-based unit, according to India Briefing 6.
Some industry executives question durability, and Samsung’s smartphone exports from India fell nearly 20% year on year in Q1 FY26 after it stopped qualifying for PLI incentives from April 2025 4.
That example raises the risk that once incentives end for Apple and others in March 2026, export momentum could weaken and India’s global manufacturing hub ambition could take a hit 4.