Apple sent around 13.2 million iPhones from China to the US from January to April 2025. At the same time, India shipped over 11.5 million iPhones to the US, per estimates. At first, it may seem that China is leading, but there is more to the story if you look closely. Since last year, India has continuously matched China in iPhone exports every month before overtaking them in April, when it shipped 3.3 million units while China exported just 900,000.
According to Omdia, through CNBC, the number of iPhones shipped from India to the US in April reached about 3 million, an increase of 76% over last year. The sudden rise was caused partly by a drop of 76 per cent in Chinese shipments during February. According to Le Xuan Chiew, research manager at Omdia, Apple has spent years planning for this kind of disruption from China. The information comes from trading partner records and channel data shared by Apple’s distributors.
Apple made major investments in India’s supply chain during the pandemic, and it looks like the effort is proving successful. Chiew explained that the high exports seen in March, at 4.4 million units from India, could result from the company preparing for Donald Trump imposing reciprocal tariffs on April 2.
At this time, iPhones shipped from China must pay 30 per cent more in tariffs than iPhones imported from India, which pay 10 per cent. Experts say India has not yet reached its full potential. For now, it is too soon to decide, Chiew explained. He pointed out that the first iPhone 16 Pro models have just started being shipped from India. Most estimates show the US buys around 20 million iPhones every quarter, and it’s projected that India will not be able to meet that demand until 2026.
Yet governments observing this trend are not ignoring it. Donald Trump just said that by imposing a 25 % tax on all iPhones, he would make Apple bring production back to the US from India. At the moment, China is alleged to be making it harder for India to grow by blocking its access to sophisticated tools and essential skills required for iPhone production.
