Smartphone sales in India showed little growth in 2025, but Apple continued to deliver strong, registering — yet again — its best year in the country thus far. The tech titan shipped around 14 million iPhones during the year, pushing its market share to a record 9% despite a largely flat market, reports TechCrunch. Overall smartphone shipments stayed around 152 million units, highlighting how Apple’s gains came largely at the expense of rivals rather than from market expansion. The company also benefited from a sharp rise in premium phone demand, with devices priced above ₹30,000 accounting for about a quarter of all smartphones shipped in India during the year.
This performance marks a significant shift in a market that has traditionally been dominated by budget and mid-range Android devices. For much of the past decade, Apple remained a niche player in India, constrained by high prices and limited local manufacturing. But in 2025, premiumization emerged as one of the clearest trends in the Indian smartphone industry, as consumers increasingly prioritized build quality, long-term software support, camera performance and brand value over low upfront prices.
While mass-market categories struggled, the premium segment continued to expand. Smartphones priced above ₹30,000 grew by around 15% year on year and accounted for around 23-25% of all devices shipped in India in 2025, the highest share ever recorded for this price band. Counterpoint Research data also indicates that this shift toward higher-end devices worked strongly in Apple’s favour, helping the company increase its market share from about 7% in 2024 to a record 9% in 2025.
One of the key reasons behind Apple’s strong performance in India was its growing local manufacturing. About 20% of all iPhones sold in the country are now assembled locally, which helps the Tim Cook-led firm lower import duties and keep prices more competitive. Local production also allowed the company to continue selling older models like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 at lower prices, while increasing the production of newer models.
At the same time, Apple has also become an important contributor to India’s smartphone exports, which reached about $30 billion in 2025, largely driven by iPhone shipments. The company’s success was also visible at the model level. In parts of 2025, the iPhone 16 was the most-shipped smartphone in India, accounting for about 4% of total shipments in the first half of the year.
However, despite Apple’s gains, competition in the market remained intense. Brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo continued to dominate overall volumes, although several of them experienced flat or declining market shares. Meanwhile, Apple’s strong performance in India also contributed to its global success. In 2025, the company overtook Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by annual shipments, capturing around 20% of the global market.
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