According to Counterpoint Research, India’s share of the world’s smartphone manufacturing output is expected to hit a record 20% in 2025 due to strong export demand from Samsung and Apple.
This expansion occurs in spite of the fact that tariffs and a slowdown in the industry are predicted to cause a 1% drop in global output in 2024.
India Set to Hit Record 20% Share in Global Smartphone Manufacturing by 2025: Counterpoint
China, India, and Vietnam produced more than 90% of the world’s smartphones in 2024.
India is positioned as the long-term victor and is growing at the fastest rate among these nations.
Prachir Singh, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research, credited India’s expansion to both the active involvement of regional EMS players and greater investments from established international EMS (electronics manufacturing services) behemoths.
India’s manufacturing capabilities have greatly improved after almost ten years of development, and they are now able to meet increased production demands.
Despite international pressures like tariffs and shifting production bases, Vietnam is also anticipated to see robust manufacturing growth, driven primarily by Samsung and Motorola.
However, new U.S. tariffs and weak domestic market performance are predicted to cause China to experience output declines in 2024.
Post-COVID Manufacturing Shift Hurt by Tariffs Across Entire Smartphone Industry: Counterpoint Research Analyst
Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, observed that although the global smartphone manufacturing shift accelerated following COVID-19, tariffs have had a detrimental effect on the industry as a whole, affecting importers, distributors, manufacturers, brands, and component suppliers.
As per him, “The global smartphone manufacturing shift has been accelerating after the COVID-19 pandemic, but the tariffs have hurt industry players at every level – from upstream component suppliers to downstream importers and distributors, brands to manufacturers. Consequently, brand owners have no choice but to move out of China and allocate more production capacity and output in other countries. The main winners are India, which has significant growth potential, and Vietnam, which is relatively closer to China and has a mature contract manufacturing and export sector for consumer electronics.”
As a result of these difficulties, companies are shifting their manufacturing from China to Vietnam (because of its maturity and closeness to China) and India (because of its high growth potential).
Due to their limited contributions to global output and the waning demand for smartphones at home, other nations with smaller manufacturing footprints will continue to experience declines.
