India should replicate smartphone export success across industries: Amitabh Kant

New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) India must replicate its success in becoming a major smartphone exporter in 10 other manufacturing sectors by partnering with global companies and becoming an integral part of the worldwide supply chains, said Amitabh Kant, Non-Executive Director on the Board of InterGlobe Aviation, on Wednesday.

India accounted for 44 per cent of all smartphones imported into the US in q1 FY26, a huge leap from just 13 per cent in the same period last year.

Kant, former G20 Sherpa and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NITI Aayog, wrote on social media platform X that "India’s share of smartphone imports in the USA has jumped 44 per cent YoY in the last three months till June as compared to 13 per cent in the same period last year. It has overtaken China, whose share in US imports of smartphones has fallen from 61 per cent to 25 per cent."

"India needs to replicate this story in ten other manufacturing sectors by tying up with global companies and becoming an integral part of global supply chains," he added.

Most of the decline in US smartphone shipments assembled in China has been picked up by India, mainly due to Apple’s 'China Plus One' strategy.

The total volume of “Made-in-India” smartphones grew 240 per cent year on year. Apple has scaled up its production capacity in India over the last several years and has dedicated most of its export capacity in India to supply the US market so far in 2025.

Though Apple has begun manufacturing and assembling Pro models of the iPhone 16 series in India, it is still dependent on established manufacturing bases in China for the scaled supply needed for Pro models in the US.

Samsung and Motorola have also increased their share of US-targeted supply from India, although their shifts are significantly slower and smaller in scale than Apple’s. Motorola, similar to Apple, has its core manufacturing hub in China, whereas Samsung relies mainly upon producing its smartphones in Vietnam.

The United States smartphone shipments grew by 1 per cent in Q2 2025 as vendors continued to frontload device inventories amid tariff concerns. The uncertain outcome of negotiations with China has accelerated supply chain reorientation.

Apple built up its inventories rapidly toward the end of Q1 and sought to maintain this level in Q2. Samsung scaled up its inventory stock in Q2, boosting its shipments to grow 38 per cent year on year, predominantly driven by Galaxy A-series devices, said the report.

--IANS

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