Apple’s contract manufacturers in India exported over 20.4 million iPhones from January to May 2025, a steep 57 per cent jump from the same 5-month period in 2024, data from global research firm Canalys (now Omdia) sourced by businessline shows.
Interestingly, despite President Donald Trump’s calls to Apple to keep production in the US, 77 per cent of these units exported from India were to the US. The share of units exported to the US as of May 2025 is 77 per cent, up from 54 per cent during the same period in 2024.
This increase in iPhone exports to the US is, however, eating into India’s exports to other markets. Exports to other markets like the Netherlands, Czech Republic, the UK and Italy are declining as US rises, as per Omdia.
Tata ramping up its contract manufacturing work for Apple has been a key contributor to this surge.
“While Foxconn still leads with 52 per cent of total iPhone exports so far this year, Tata has rapidly emerged as a key force in Apple’s India strategy,” Sanyam Chaurasia, senior Analyst - Mobility, Canalys (part of Omdia), said. “Its [Tata’s] share jumped from 13 per cent in 2024 to 37 per cent YTD, shipping over 7.5 million iPhones in just five months,” he added.
Chaurasia highlights that besides its own EMS expansion in Hosur, Tata’s moves to gain control of Wistron’s facility in Karnataka has helped add up its exports. “Tata is now a credible second pillar alongside Foxconn in Apple’s India-based manufacturing base,” he said.
India is helping serve Apple’s US consumer needs at a time when iPhone shipments from China are impacted due to the ongoing tariffs tensions. Omdia data showed that China sent around 9 lakh units of iPhones in April 2025 compared to 37 lakhs in April 2024, before Trump came to power.
Analysts tracking Apple’s supply chain note that the production of iPhone Pro and Pro Max models has also shifted to India in recent times and hence the levels of workforce preparedness here is now complete, but it will still be a challenge for Indian vendors of Apple to scale to growing demand. Further, China also remains deeply entrenched in Apple’s manufacturing ecosystem and is home to over 200 key suppliers.
“A full transition of US-bound iPhone production to India within a year remains unlikely. A partial shift is more feasible, though it still requires substantial investment in infrastructure and continued reliance on China for key components,” Chaurasia told businessline earlier.
A recent report analysing Apple’s supply chain systems, authored by Chris Miller, the author of Chip War and Harvard University Fellow Vishnu Venugopalan, showed that Apple began to shift its electronics manufacturing footprint in 2018, presumably driven by the 2018 US tariffs on China.
“Before 2018, around 60–70 per cent of electronics manufacturing locations were in China, including nearly all final assembly of key devices like iPhones. Today, by contrast, around 50 per cent of Apple facilities are in China, with increased factory share in India and Southeast Asia,” the study notes.