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With iPhones doing the heavy lifting and MacBook demand also surging, India has become the new growth engine in the world’s most populous nation.
Apple’s strategic gamble on India has paid off. Fresh data shows the tech giant booked nearly $9 billion in sales in the Indian market in the fiscal year ending March 2025, a 13% jump from the previous year’s $8 billion. It is more than a big number. It signals a shift in how global tech views India, both as a manufacturing base and as a consumer market.
The surge arrives as Apple faces plateauing mobile device sales globally. With iPhones doing the heavy lifting and MacBook demand also surging, India has become the new growth engine in the world’s most populous nation.
Behind the India sales pop sits a rewired supply chain. One in every five iPhones is now manufactured in India, spread across five factories, two of them recently opened.
Earlier this year, industry experts pointed to a sharp turn. Apple’s India manufacturing output surged to $22 billion in fiscal year 2025, a 60% year-on-year increase that captured 20% of global iPhone production. Here is the twist, India has overtaken China as the top exporter of Apple smartphones to the U.S., accounting for 44% of U.S.-bound iPhone imports compared with China’s 25%.
The boom ripples outward. Research from 17 months ago showed Apple’s ecosystem has employed over 150,000 people directly since the Production Linked Incentive scheme launched in August 2021, with another 300,000 employed indirectly, making Apple India’s largest blue-collar job creator.
And the targets keep climbing. Plans revealed four months ago indicate Apple and its suppliers aim to assemble 32% of global iPhone output and 26% of its value in India by 2026-27, positioning India as a cornerstone of Apple’s diversified supply chain for years to come.
Apple’s physical footprint in India also jumped, a clear tell of a long-term bet. The company opened two new flagship stores, Apple Hebbal in Bengaluru on September 2 and Apple Koregaon Park in Pune on September 4, bringing its total physical retail locations to four.
These are not routine ribbon cuttings. The Apple Hebbal store marks the company’s first physical retail location in South India. The Pune location is staffed by 68 employees from 11 Indian states and leans into local flavor with custom wallpapers and curated playlists featuring local artists.
The momentum is not slowing. Apple is planning to launch outlets in Noida and Mumbai early next year, which would lift the total store count to six across major metropolitan areas.
Apple’s retail approach reads as tailored to the market. The company has tailored its offerings with financing programs, localized content partnerships, student discounts, and bank-linked rebates to offset higher prices, which start at 79,900 rupees ($906) for the iPhone 16 base model compared with $799 in the US.
This push builds on a measured entry. The company launched its online store in India in 2020, then Tim Cook cut ribbons for the first two brick-and-mortar stores in Mumbai and New Delhi in 2023.
Apple’s India breakthrough is not just a quarterly bump. It is a reshaping of global tech manufacturing and sales. India became its own region in Apple’s global sales operations in 2023, a formal nod to the market’s strategic weight.
Tim Cook has frequently identified India as one of Apple’s fastest-growing markets, and this latest news backs that up. With iPhones currently holding about 7% of India’s smartphone market, in the world’s second-largest smartphone market, the runway is long.
Timing helps. While sales in China rose 4.4% in the June quarter, the first increase in two years, Apple still faces tough local competition from companies like Xiaomi. India offers a different competitive mix and a hedge against China-related geopolitical risks.
The most striking part is the loop. India went from almost zero contribution five years ago to a meaningful revenue driver, while production scaled in parallel. Sales feed manufacturing, manufacturing feeds sales. It feels like the start, not the finish.
