India’s smartphone exports have surged dramatically, making them the fourth-largest export item from the country, with a remarkable 42 percent growth to $15.6 billion in FY24. This achievement marks a significant milestone as smartphones move up one notch in the export ranking from the previous year, replacing motor gasoline.
The Commerce Department’s data highlights that the substantial increase in smartphone exports is driven by a 158 percent rise in shipments to the United States, reaching $5.6 billion. Following the US, the United Arab Emirates imported $2.6 billion worth of smartphones, the Netherlands $1.2 billion, and the United Kingdom $1.1 billion.
India’s proactive approach to separately tracking smartphone data since April 2022 has shed light on this booming sector. While petroleum products continue to dominate India’s top export items, smartphones have become a significant player in the export market.
Preliminary estimates by the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) indicate that the total value of mobile devices produced in India for both export and domestic markets in FY24 has soared to Rs 4.1 trillion ($49.16 billion), reflecting a year-on-year increase of at least 17 percent.
The smartphone sector’s growth is a testament to the success of the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which has positioned India as the second-largest mobile phone manufacturing country globally, second only to China. This initiative has also been instrumental in the China-Plus-One strategy, leveraging geopolitical tensions between China and the US to attract companies to shift their manufacturing operations to India.
Among the eligible firms benefiting from the PLI scheme are Apple’s three vendors — Foxconn, Wistron India (now Tata Electronics), and Pegatron — as well as Samsung. Apple has been at the forefront of this export growth, with outbound shipments of its mobile devices expected to surpass Rs 1.2 trillion ($14.39 billion) in FY24, up 33 percent from Rs 90,000 crore in FY23. According to ICEA data, exports in FY24 accounted for nearly 30 percent of the total output value, an increase from 25 percent in FY23.
This impressive growth trajectory underscores India’s increasing role in the global smartphone manufacturing and export landscape, marking a significant step forward in the country’s economic and industrial development.
