Indian manufactured mobile phone shipment grew by 7 per cent in Q1 of 2022- Technology News, Firstpost

FP StaffJun 17, 2022 15:31:37 IST

As per a report by market research firm Counterpoint Research shipments of smartphones that have been manufactured in India crossed 48 million units in the first quarter of this year.

The report states that shipments of devices made in the country grew by 7 per cent year-on-year (YOY) during the quarter, while manufacturing of feature phones declined by 41 per cent YOY.

The report states that the growth of phones made in India can be attributed to the increasing demand for smartphones in the country, as well as an increase in exports. In 2021, Indian manufacturers, shipped over 190 million units, and this year, they are likely to cross the number, comfortably.

“In the smartphone segment, the third-party electronic manufacturing services (EMS) providers captured 42 per cent share in local manufacturing, registering 4 per cent YoY growth in terms of shipments,” the report stated.

Of all the EMS providers in the country, the Indian arm of Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn, Bharat FIH, was at the top in the first quarter of 2022. Homegrown Dixon Technologies followed Bharat FIH in the smartphone manufacturing segment, though Lava made the most feature phones, and had a 21 per cent market share.  

If we consider brands, China’s Oppo shipped the most number of made-in-India smartphones during the quarter, followed by Samsung. The two smartphone makers had 22 per cent and 21 per cent market share, respectively, in the overall number of made-in-India smartphones shipped.

The mobile phone manufacturing industry in India has been spurred over the past two years after the Indian government introduced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for manufacturers. Under this, the government gives manufacturing firms 4-6 per cent cash incentives for incremental sales of goods manufactured in India over the base year of 2019-20. 

While the scheme was introduced in 2020, most PLI applicants failed to meet the targets last year, following widespread supply chain shortages, pandemic-driven lockdowns and other constraints. The government, in turn, chose to extend the scheme’s tenure to 2025-26, as opposed to the earlier 2024-25 end date.

“Going forward, we believe India’s handset manufacturing will grow 4 per cent YoY in 2022,” Counterpoint said in its report. Industry estimates say that India currently has the capacity to produce somewhere between 300 to 350 million mobile phones every year, including both smartphones and feature phones.