iPhone Helps India Overtake China as the Leading Manufacturer for U.S. Smartphones

[MacRumors]

India has overtaken China as the leading manufacturer of smartphones shipped to the United States, a change largely driven by Apple, according to Canalys.

New data from Canalys shows that iPhone shipments to the United States fell 11% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025, as the company accelerated a major supply chain shift to India amid persistent trade tensions with China; Apple shipped 13.3 million iPhones to the U.S. between April and June, down from 14.9 million units in the same period last year.

The decline follows a strong first quarter in which Apple saw a 25% year-over-year shipment increase, partly attributed to early consumer purchases ahead of anticipated tariffs. Canalys attributes the second-quarter decline to a combination of frontloaded demand, rising economic pressure on consumers, and increased competition in the low- and mid-range segments of the market.

Despite the drop in shipments, Apple remained the leading smartphone vendor in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2025, holding a 49% market share. This still represents a 7% decline from the 56% share recorded in the second quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, Samsung obtained 38% year-over-year growth, reaching 8.3 million units shipped and expanding its market share from 23% to 31%.

The share of U.S. smartphone shipments assembled in China dropped from 61% in the second quarter of 2024 to 25% in the second quarter of 2025. India now accounts for 44% of U.S. smartphone imports, up from just 13% a year ago. This marks the first time India has overtaken China as the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones shipped to the United States.

India became the leading manufacturing hub for smartphones sold in the U.S. for the very first time in Q2 2025, largely driven by Apple's accelerated supply chain shift to India amid an uncertain trade landscape between the U.S. and China. Apple has scaled up its production capacity in India over the last several years as a part of its 'China Plus One' strategy and has opted to dedicate most of its export capacity in India to supply the U.S. market so far in 2025.

Apple began assembling iPhone 16 Pro models in India during the quarter, marking a significant expansion of the company's operations in the country. Nevertheless, the company continues to rely on manufacturing facilities in China to meet the full scale of U.S. demand for Pro models.

The shift is part of Apple's broader effort to mitigate risk from U.S.-China trade tensions and reduce dependence on a single country for production. Apple also continued to frontload inventories in the second quarter to prepare for potential tariffs later in 2025.

Apple built up its inventories rapidly toward the end of Q1 and sought to maintain this level in Q2. Yet, the market only grew 1% despite vendors frontloading inventory, indicating tepid demand in an increasingly pressured economic environment and a widening gap between sell-in and sell-through.

The 1% overall market growth in U.S. smartphone shipments in the second quarter suggests that consumer appetite for new smartphones remains subdued. Apple is expected to report earnings on July 31.

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Article Link: iPhone Helps India Overtake China as the Leading Manufacturer for U.S. Smartphones

 

[Leachb31]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 10 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

 

[senttoschool]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 20 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

So what are you doing here?

Anyway, US will get expensive and worse quality iPhones. The rest of the world will get them cheaper and higher quality (China made).

 

[BarrettF77]

The quality of these devices is gonna be terrible on the high-end side as they do not have the skilled labor as China does. Corporate greed reigns supreme.

#FireTimCook

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 20 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

accidentally stumble into the wrong thread there?
think you meant to enter one of the 50,000 “Apple is Doomed” threads just created within the last two weeks and missclicked…

 

[Adam Warlock]

So what are you doing here?

Anyway, US will get expensive and worse quality iPhones. The rest of the world will get them cheaper and higher quality (China made).

I don't understand. Where did the Chinese get this magical ability to assemble electronic components better than anyone else? I hope you don't believe the nonsense Tim Cook tried to push a while back claiming that only China has the skillset to put these bits of glass, metal, silicon and plastic together. The Chinese are not born with this knowledge; it was taught to them, and can thus be likewise taught to anyone else, including workers in Western nations. Costs is another issue entirely, but to claim that quality is best from China is rubbish.

 

[Pudlo]

so now in 5 years they will start to think about getting into war with India and not China? Or they decided to fight both?

 

[senttoschool]

I don't understand. Where did the Chinese get this magical ability to assemble electronic components better than anyone else? I hope you don't believe the nonsense Tim Cook tried to push a while back claiming that only China has the skillset to put these bits of glass, metal, silicon and plastic together. The Chinese are not born with this knowledge; it was taught to them, and can thus be likewise taught to anyone else, including workers in Western nations. Costs is another issue entirely, but to claim that quality is best from China is rubbish.

When was the last time India made anything of quality?

Sure, Indians can be trained but there will be a ton of growing pains.

 

[senttoschool]

so now in 5 years they will start to think about getting into war with India and not China? Or they decided to fight both?

If India ever starts competing against the US in the high value sector, then it'll be "india bad" in western media.

 

[Adam Warlock]

When was the last time India made anything of quality?

Sure, Indians can be trained but there will be a ton of growing pains.

I don't know. My point is that the Chinese are not the only ones that can assemble phones. This knowledge can and should be spread out, particularly to Western nations.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 20 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

Multiple things don't add up with your comment. You are a "20 year Apple fanboy" who hasn't been impressed with Apple's phones or laptops "over the past 20 years" but you also liked the 2012 MacBook Pro (2012 was only 13 years ago). You're not a "fanboy" if you aren't impressed with Apple products. You might use them, but that's not the same as being a "fanboy".

"It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died."

He died in 2011 but you thought the 2012 MacBook Pro was good. That's not "downhill" from his death even acknowledging the 2012 MBP was similar to the 2011 one. Also, if you haven't tried Apple Silicon laptops, you're missing out. Absolutely phenomenal computers.

I'll say as someone who has been mainly but not exclusively using Apple products for more than 40 years -- they are better now than they've ever been.

 

[wikiverse]

Samsung having 31% market share is actually really impressive. There is actually competition for Android phones - a lot of it, and the hardware is mostly superior to current iPhones.

I mean, all other Android devices make up 20% of the market, and Samsung manages to hold 31%.

I'd probably get a Samsung phone if it didn't run Android. I think they look great and their AI features are at least a generation ahead of Apple (especially photo editing). I just don't want track-me-everywhere Google software on my phone. I really wish there was a third option.

 

[Quasselstripper]

they are better now than they've ever been.

100% agree. iPhones as well. Such nice tools

 

[BarrettF77]

If he wanted to, he could make these devices here in the US. A lot of of companies could do that.

He also has not released any kind of new meaningful hardware upgrades and the only new products he’s released have not done great

Looking at almost 15 years of Steve Jobs versus almost 15 years of Tim Cook and the differences are stark

 

[t0rqx]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 20 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

The latest MBP screens are shipped with dents and scratches. Four years straight. Talk about quality, a cheap HP does not have these issues.

 

[mixmastermike]

I don't understand. Where did the Chinese get this magical ability to assemble electronic components better than anyone else? I hope you don't believe the nonsense Tim Cook tried to push a while back claiming that only China has the skillset to put these bits of glass, metal, silicon and plastic together. The Chinese are not born with this knowledge; it was taught to them, and can thus be likewise taught to anyone else, including workers in Western nations. Costs is another issue entirely, but to claim that quality is best from China is rubbish.

LMAO... you're about to learn something the hard way.

Food for thought; why do you think Japan does such a good job of producing pretty much anything? It's a rhetorical question, the answer is obvious; it's culturally ingrained in them to be perfectionists.

 

[Ev0d3vil]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 20 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

Yeah right. The M series Macs smokes the 2012 Mac and they are of higher quality as well.

 

[CapitalIdea]

I don't understand. Where did the Chinese get this magical ability to assemble electronic components better than anyone else? I hope you don't believe the nonsense Tim Cook tried to push a while back claiming that only China has the skillset to put these bits of glass, metal, silicon and plastic together. The Chinese are not born with this knowledge; it was taught to them, and can thus be likewise taught to anyone else, including workers in Western nations. Costs is another issue entirely, but to claim that quality is best from China is rubbish.

Well, when you have a nation like the United States where the priority is football rather than science and advances in fabrication paired with a free market, this is the result.

 

[citysnaps]

accidentally stumble into the wrong thread there?
think you meant to enter one of the 50,000 “Apple is Doomed” threads just created within the last two weeks and missclicked…

Spot-on. Cracks me up all of the gloom and doom projections... going back a couple dozen years.

"Who asked for a thousand songs in your pocket?" when Jobs introduced iPod.
"Who asked for a mobile phone with a non-mechanical keyboard?" when Jobs introduced iPhone.

And dozens more.

 

[Devyn89]

The quality of these devices is gonna be terrible on the high-end side as they do not have the skilled labor as China does. Corporate greed reigns supreme.

#FireTimCook

What are you basing this assertion on? Do you have evidence for your claims?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

If India ever starts competing against the US in the high value sector, then it'll be "india bad" in western media.

India is a Putin Partner. The two countries are big allies. Seems like leaving China for India is like a weight-watcher giving up the cheeseburger for an ice cream cone.

 

[JapanApple]

When China was getting to be a power in manufacturing, people said the same thing: "Items made would be TERRIBLE." Nothing new here. The countries discussed are different. Besides, economists have been saying since the early '90s that India would overtake China in manufacturing and production because of its man-power and lower wage costs

 

[SamboSoul]

Apple is going to continue to see a fall in sales as one bone head design decision after another starts to take it's toll. I have used Apple products for almost 20 years now, and I must say that my next phone is probably going to be an android. Haven't been impressed with their laptops either over the past 10 years. The last good laptop Apple made was the 2012 macbook pro. It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died.

So yeah, if a 20 year fanboy is ready to stop buying Apple, I would say their best years are behind them.

Errr no?! That is entirely your perspective and decision. I have been an Apple ‘fanboy’ for the same number of years and I still love the design as on day 1.

 

[d5aqoëp]

When was the last time India made anything of quality?

Sure, Indians can be trained but there will be a ton of growing pains.

What a rubbish and baseless claim. I am still rocking a made in India iPhone since 3-4 years and recently got 16 Pro Max which was Made in India and that device is flawless. Infact my previous Chinese assembled phones have had dirt under screen, fingerprints and even hair.

 

[Leachb31]

Multiple things don't add up with your comment. You are a "20 year Apple fanboy" who hasn't been impressed with Apple's phones or laptops "over the past 20 years" but you also liked the 2012 MacBook Pro (2012 was only 13 years ago). You're not a "fanboy" if you aren't impressed with Apple products. You might use them, but that's not the same as being a "fanboy".

"It has been all downhill since Steve Jobs died."

He died in 2011 but you thought the 2012 MacBook Pro was good. That's not "downhill" from his death. Also, if you haven't tried Apple Silicon laptops, you're missing out. Absolutely phenomenal computers.

I'll say that as someone who has been mainly but not exclusively using Apple products for more than 40 years, they are better now than they've ever been.

It was a typo. The laptop comment should have read 10 years and not 20.

And the 2012 macbook pro was very much so a Steve Jobs designed product. It was just an iteration of the 2011 model that Jobs designed. It was after 2012 (post Jobs) that all the bonehead design decisions started to take place. Like... removing all useful ports, using crap keyboards that they had to recall, adding a notch to the screen, going thinner and thinner while sacrificing durability, etc... Apple's days as the illustrious company that they once were entirely because of Jobs' vision, are numbered imo.