The ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments declined 3% year-on-year (YoY) in 2022 (January to December period), owing to a softening in consumer demand due to macroeconomic global headwinds, especially in the second half of the year, according to Counterpoint Research. In the last quarter of 2022 , the overall shipments of 'Made in India' smartphones fell 19% YoY due to decline in local demand, particularly in the entire-tier and mid-tier segments. According to Counterpoint Research, the contribution of exports in 'Made in India' smartphone shipments reached 20% and 30% in terms of volume and value in 2022, respectively.
In terms of value, 'Made in India' shipments registered 34% YoY growth driven by the local trend of increasing premiumization coupled with the increasing exports of premium smartphones, especially from the U.S.-based smartphone manufacturer Apple. With this, Apple’s contribution to ‘Made in India’ smartphone shipments reached 25% in value in 2022. Of this, Apple grew 65% YoY by volume and 162% YoY by value in the domestic smartphone market. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Apple’s EMS (electronic manufacturing services) in partnership with Foxconn Hon Hai and Wistron were the fastest-growing manufacturers among the top 10 owing to an increase in export from Apple.
In the Q4 of 2022, Samsung emerged as the top smartphone manufacturer, ahead of OPPO whose manufacturing shipments declined by 31% YoY due to inventory issues in the entry-tier segment. Samsung’s manufacturing shipments declined only 7% YoY due to its stable export volume. Among the EMS players, Foxconn Hon Hai led the manufacturing shipments in Q4 2022, followed by Dixon. Dixon remained the top Indian EMS player in Q4 2022 as well. In the feature phone segment, Lava led the 'Made in India' shipments with almost 29% share.
"The contract manufacturing landscape is expanding with multiple EMS players increasing their output. The PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme is one of the major factors driving this trend. Bharat FIH remained the top EMS player for smartphone manufacturing in 2022, followed by Dixon. Bharat FIH has been a key player in developing the overall smartphone manufacturing ecosystem as well as local talent, especially with the women workforce. Dixon, which is also increasing its footprint in smartphone manufacturing, was the leading Indian EMS in 2022. Padget, with the Motorola portfolio, emerged as one of the fastest growing EMS players in 2022, registering 70% YoY growth in terms of manufacturing shipments," said Prachir Singh, senior research analyst, Counterpoint.
Tarun Pathak, Research Director, Counterpoint Research said that several initiatives by the state and union governments including the disbursement of PLI incentives have boosted overall local manufacturing. "We are now seeing multiple companies investing in India and expanding their manufacturing base. Also, the component and semiconductor ecosystem is witnessing investment growth due to the government’s continuous efforts. However, the government should focus on developing the overall ecosystem and play on India’s strengths like high local demand, developing local talent and improving overall infrastructure. We believe that the government will leverage India’s geopolitical strengths and focus on building favourable export and trade policies to make India a preferred destination for electronics manufacturing," Pathak added.
