India has announced to cut import duties on mobile phones and some key components to 15% from 20%. India's finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, said at the 2024/25 budget briefing that the reduction in import duties on mobile phones, printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) and mobile phone chargers was in the interests of consumers.

Apple (AAPL.US) is expected to benefit directly from India's announcement. Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research, said that about 10-12% of Apple's iPhones are imported into India every year, and that a 5% tax break would benefit Apple by US$35 million to US$50 million annually.

-advertisement-

Apple has been making ever-increasing efforts to reduce its dependence on China as a manufacturing hub, with India now its second-biggest production center.

What started as an operation limited to the iPhone SE has grown in sophistication as well as scale – but not all premium models are yet manufactured there. This means that Apple needs to import some iPhones into the country for local sale.

According to Counterpoint data, Apple's market share of mobile phones in India is about 6%. By comparison, VIVO, XIAOMI-W and Samsung were the top three players in 1Q24, with market shares of 18-19% each.

Samsung is said to benefit to a smaller degree, as almost all of the models sold in the country are manufactured locally.

Editor：Vicky

▼▼▼

Intel suspended investment in French and Italian chip plants

DARPA invests $1.4 billion to build multi-chiplet 3D processors for military and civilian applications

Nvidia developing flagship AI chip for Chinese market

OpenAI and Broadcom in talks about developing new AI chip

Huawei files patent suit against Mediatek

Vietnam partners with U.S. firms to train 50,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030