According to a new report by market research firm Counterpoint Research, shipments of smartphones made in India have crossed 48 million in the first quarter of 2021. As per the report, shipments of home-made devices grew 7% year-on-year (YOY) during the quarter, while feature phone manufacturing declined by 41%.
Prachir Singh, Senior Research Analyst, Counterpoint Research, attributed the growth of India-made phones to rising demand for smartphones in the country as well as growth in exports. He said the manufacturers who have set up shop in the country sold over 190 million units in 2021.
“In the smartphone segment, third-party electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers accounted for 42% share in local manufacturing, registering a 4% year-on-year growth in terms of shipments,” he said.
According to Singh, in terms of EMS providers in the country, the Indian arm of Taiwanese Foxconn, called Bharat FIH, was the top EMS provider in India in the first quarter of 2022. Homegrown Dixon Technologies followed in the smartphone manufacturing segment, although Lava made the largest number of feature phones manufactured in India with 21% market share.
Among brands, Chinese Oppo shipped the most smartphones to India during the quarter, followed by Samsung. In the total number of manufactured in India smartphones shipped here, both the smartphone makers had a market share of 22% and 21% respectively.
The mobile phone manufacturing industry in India has received a boost in the last two years, after the Government of India launched the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturers. Under this, the government provides 4-6% cash incentives to manufacturing firms to increase sales of manufactured goods in India in the base year 2019-20.
While the scheme was launched in 2020, most of the PLI applicants failed to meet the targets last year following extensive supply chain constraints, pandemic-induced lockdown and other constraints. In return, the government opted to extend the tenure of the scheme to 2025-26, as opposed to the earlier 2024-25 expiration date.
“Going forward, we are confident that India’s handset manufacturing will grow 4% year-on-year in 2022,” Counterpoint said in its report. The industry estimates that India currently has the capacity to produce 300 to 350 million mobile phones every year, which includes both smartphones and tablets. feature phones.