India beats China in source of smartphone shipments into US in Q2

India beats China to emerge as top source of smartphone shipments into US for the first time in Q2 2025.

The uncertainty over US’ tariff negotiations with China has brought about a supply chain reorientation in the US smartphone market, recent global data from research firm Canalys (now part of Omdia) showed. Smartphone vendors have accelerated manufacturing diversification amid shifting geopolitical landscape, the analysts at Canalys noted.

The share of smartphones shipped to US and assembled in China shrank from 61 per cent in Q2 2024 to 25 per cent in Q2 2025 and this decline has largely been picked up by India. The share of ‘Made-in-India’ smartphones shipped to the US now accounts for 44 per cent of the total in Q2 2025, up from only 13 per cent in Q2 2024.

Vietnam, the third largest source of smartphones shipped to the US, saw its share grow from 24 per cent in Q2 2024 to 30 per cent in Q2 2025.

Analysts note that while this is largely driven by India’s burgeoning manufacturing ecosystem for Apple’s iPhones, there have also been a rise in Samsung and Motorola phones being sent to the US from India.

Overall, the US smartphone shipments grew by 1 per cent in Q2 2025 as vendors continued to frontload device inventories amid tariff concerns.

“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 US market so far in 2025. Apple has begun manufacturing and assembling Pro models of the iPhone 16 series in India,” Sanyam Chaurasia, Principal Analyst at Canalys (now part of Omdia), said. However,. he adds that Apple 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,” he said.

Motorola, like Apple, has its core manufacturing hub in China, while Samsung relies mainly upon producing its smartphones in Vietnam.”

Runar Bjorhovde, Senior Analyst at Canalys notes that the US smartphone market grew only 1 per cent in the quarter, despite vendors frontloading inventory, indicating dull demand amid a slowing economic environment. “Even if smartphones remain exempted from tariffs, many other categories are impacted, which might greatly impact consumers’ spending patterns and keep smartphone demand modest in H2 in the US,” he added.

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Published on July 29, 2025