Apple’s India pivot pays off with a record year
Apple just set a new high-water mark in India, pulling in Apple India revenue of roughly $9 billion in fiscal 2025—up 13% from the prior year’s $8 billion. That double-digit climb stands out at a time when global smartphone demand has been choppy. In simple terms, India is no longer the “potential” market for Apple—it’s a core growth engine.
What changed? iPhones, first and foremost. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates Apple shipped 5.9 million iPhones in the first half of 2025, a punchy 21.5% jump from a year earlier. The iPhone 16 led the pack, becoming the most shipped Apple model across India, and doing so despite a broader market that grew less than 1% in the same period.
MacBooks also pulled their weight. The switch to Apple Silicon has made even older M-series laptops feel fast, battery-stingy, and reliable—three things buyers care about. Retailers report steady traction with students and young professionals, helped by education pricing, trade-in programs, and no-cost EMIs that lower the upfront burden.
Apple’s retail push is another big lever. After opening flagship stores in Mumbai and New Delhi in 2023, the company rolled out new outlets in Bengaluru and Pune. Stores in Noida and another in Mumbai are on the way early next year. The goal is clear: more hands-on demos, tighter control of pricing and experience, and a consistent brand presence in high-traffic districts where premium buyers live and work.
That offline expansion is backed by smarter online execution. Seasonal cashbacks, exchange deals on older iPhones, and price drops on previous-generation models have widened the funnel. For many first-time buyers in India, the first iPhone is last year’s iPhone—still premium, just more reachable. This mix of flagship buzz and practical affordability has grown Apple’s footprint beyond the metros into Tier-2 cities.
Apple’s services business adds another layer. App Store billings and sales in India hit more than ₹44,447 crore (about $5.31 billion) in 2024. Indian developers aren’t just building for India; they’re going global. Their apps saw over 755 million downloads worldwide, with about 80% of earnings coming from users outside India. Local payment methods on the App Store and a boom in subscriptions—from productivity to entertainment—are pushing that flywheel.
Local manufacturing, exports, and the road to 60 million units
Manufacturing is where Apple’s India story gets even more interesting. One in five iPhones is now made in India, across five factories operated by major suppliers. Apple is investing roughly $2.5 billion to scale annual capacity from about 40 million to 60 million units. That’s not a tweak; it’s a shift in the company’s production map.
Suppliers have been expanding in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, bringing more assembly lines and more skilled jobs. Tata Electronics took over Wistron’s iPhone assembly operations, while Foxconn and Pegatron continue to add capacity. The goal over time is to deepen the local component ecosystem so that more parts, not just the final assembly, come from Indian plants. That’s hard work—tooling, precision engineering, and quality yields take time—but it’s happening.
Policy has helped. India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme rewards companies that hit output and export targets, and smartphones have become the program’s poster child. You can see it in the numbers: smartphone exports reached about $7.5 billion in just April–July 2025, nearly halfway to the $17 billion shipped in the entire FY2024. iPhones are a major driver of that surge.
Why is Apple pushing so hard here? Diversification. China remains Apple’s biggest overseas market, but it’s volatile—demand swings, geopolitics, and fierce local competition have all raised execution risk. China did notch a 4.4% revenue bump in the April–June quarter, the first increase in two years, yet rivals like Xiaomi keep the pressure on. Adding India as a second large-scale base for both sales and manufacturing reduces concentration risk for Apple’s supply chain.
There’s also a consumer story beneath the factory story. India shipped 70 million smartphones in the first half of 2025, up just 0.9% year over year. Flat market, right? Not for the premium slice. As incomes rise and financing gets easier, more buyers are moving up the ladder. Apple has been capturing that shift by marrying launch-cycle excitement with aggressive pricing on earlier models. Industry trackers have consistently placed Apple at the top of India’s premium segment over the past two years.
The company’s retail strategy ties neatly into this. Flagship stores set the tone on experience and service. Authorized resellers and national retail chains carry that down-market. Online partners amplify reach during big sale events. The result: shorter wait times for new launches, more trade-in choices, and tighter control on gray-market leakage that used to mess with pricing.
Still, the next phase won’t be easy. To hit 60 million units a year and keep costs in check, more local suppliers will need to make components at scale—cameras, casings, connectors, batteries, and sub-assemblies. Logistics need to stay smooth, export paperwork needs to stay predictable, and import duties on parts need a steady hand so the economics don’t whipsaw. The companies that crack precision manufacturing, clean rooms, and high-yield processes will win the next decade of contracts.
On the software side, the opportunity is just as large. India’s developer community is already selling abroad, but there’s headroom at home too—enterprise SaaS on iPad and Mac, consumer subscriptions bundled with banking and telecom plans, and creator tools built for short video and gaming. As Apple’s installed base grows, local apps can reach new paying users without leaving the country.
Look ahead two years and the picture gets even bigger. Projections point to India producing roughly 32% of all iPhones by 2026, up from around 17–18% in 2024. If that holds, India shifts from “an alternative” to “a pillar” in Apple’s global chain. The combination of a booming premium market, deeper local manufacturing, and rising services revenue sets a base that’s more resilient than a single product cycle.
There are clear markers to watch: the opening of new stores in Noida and Mumbai, the pace of supplier capacity adds in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, how quickly component localization widens beyond assembly, and whether exports keep compounding through FY2026. Also watch the demand mix—iPhone 16 is the headliner now, but price-adjusted iPhone 15 and 14 models are doing the quiet heavy lifting in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets.
Put it together and the path is visible. India gives Apple a growing pool of premium buyers, a manufacturing base that can scale, and a services engine that pays in dollars. For a company juggling global headwinds, that’s not just a good quarter. It’s a strategic reset.
