Apple is intensifying efforts to convert India’s growing appetite for premium smartphones into higher sales by opening more retail stores and offering expanded financing deals, while simultaneously scaling up local manufacturing.

The company has built a network of Apple Stores across key cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, and Noida, giving customers direct access to products and services in a market long dominated by multi-brand retailers and online platforms. These physical locations allow Apple to showcase the latest iPhone models and provide hands-on experiences that help drive upgrades and first-time purchases.

To address India’s price-sensitive consumers, Apple has broadened financing partnerships. Shoppers can access no-cost EMI options for several months through major banks, instant cashback offers of up to ₹15,000 on select cards, and trade-in programs that reduce the effective cost of new devices, Bloomberg News reports. These tools lower the barrier to entry for devices that often carry higher list prices in India than in the US due to taxes and other factors.

The push comes as Apple’s India business reaches new milestones. Annual sales surpassed $10 billion for the first time in the fiscal year ended March 2026, up from about $9 billion the prior year, with iPhones accounting for the majority of revenue. Market share has expanded significantly: iPhones now represent around 10% of smartphone shipments in some recent periods, a sharp rise from roughly 1.5% a decade earlier—and the company continues to post double-digit growth even amid broader industry softness.

Manufacturing growth underpins both supply reliability and the “Made in India” appeal. Apple now assembles about a quarter of its global iPhones in the country, producing roughly 55 million units in 2025. For the first time, the full iPhone 17 lineup (including base, Plus, Pro, and Pro Max variants, plus related models) was manufactured locally from launch. Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn and Tata Electronics operate large facilities near Chennai and Bengaluru, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and a deepening local supplier base of more than 40 companies making components ranging from batteries to enclosures.

This dual focus on demand-side accessibility and supply-side localization positions India as both a major growth market and a strategic hedge against reliance on China. CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly highlighted the country’s potential, noting strong uptake among first-time Apple customers across iPhones, Macs, and iPads. Analysts point to premiumization trends, improved inventory management, and these retail and financing initiatives as key drivers of the shift from niche status to mainstream relevance.
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MacDailyNews Take: While challenges remain (including competition in the mid-premium segment, currency fluctuations, and the need for continued policy support after the original production-linked incentive scheme ended) Apple’s investments signal confidence that Indian consumer desire for iPhones will sustain long-term expansion.

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A yearslong partnership between Indian policymakers and electronics manufacturers has shifted supply chains away from China, according to Bloomberg News.

Each day, more than 150 white buses fan out on the black tar roads that run through the outskirts of the Indian city of Chennai, ferrying workers to a factory run by the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn. Although calling the facility a factory doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s a 160-acre fortress lined with assembly shop floors, testing and storage rooms, nine hostel towers, huge parking bays, and a power station. Roughly 40,000 employees work through three shifts, under the strict watch of almost 700 security guards, making iPhones.

About 30 kilometers (19 miles) away stands another iPhone assembly facility, this one run by Pegatron Corp., now controlled by the Tata Group. There, about 10,000 people, most of them women, work in an equally disciplined environment.

The development forms part of Apple’s broader effort to build production capacity in India as a hedge against risks concentrated in China, Bloomberg News reports in its August 5, 2026, feature.

MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, it’s very important for Apple to not have all of their eggs in one basket – especially one owned by the CCP. The sky’s the limit for Apple in India!

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Apple exceeded $10 billion in annual sales in India for the first time last fiscal year, underscoring surging demand for its pricey devices in a market where it’s steadily ramping up its retail network.

Revenue grew at a double-digit percentage rate in the 12 months through March from about $9 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg News reports citing a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Apple’s iPhone lineup accounted for a significant majority of the sales, while demand for iPads and MacBooks also rose, the person said.

The milestone highlights Apple’s expanding presence in India through a broader retail network.
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MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote four years ago, “The sky’s the limit for Apple in India!”

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India has proposed extending tax exemptions until 2041 for foreign companies that provide machinery to contract manufacturers, handing a major win to Apple which had lobbied for such changes, and is fast expanding in the market.

India has been a key market for Apple as it diversifies iPhone manufacturing beyond China, and the South Asian nation is set to make 26% of the world’s iPhones in 2026, up from 6% four years ago, according to Counterpoint Research.

According to a draft of the proposed tax amendments seen by Reuters, “to provide (tax) certainty” the government has extended tax breaks until March 31, 2041 to foreign companies that provide equipment to their contract manufacturers in India.

India introduced the tax exemption for foreign companies in February, valid only until 2031, after Apple lobbied the Indian government to modify its income tax laws to ensure the company is not taxed for ownership of the high-end iPhone machinery it provides to its contract manufacturers.

Apple had feared that, unlike in China, tax laws in India could treat ownership of machinery supplied to its contract manufacturers as so-called “business connection,” exposing its iPhone profits to tax.

Tax Break for Storing Components

The extended tax exemption will apply to manufacturers of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, hearing, and wearable electronic devices, according to the draft bill that will have to be passed by the lower and upper houses of parliament.

India has also exempted from tax foreign companies’ income from storing and providing parts used to manufacture such electronics components to contract manufacturers until 2041.

The rule will apply for factories and warehouses set up in so-called customs-bonded areas — which are technically considered being outside India’s customs border. If devices are sold within India from such factories, they will attract import taxes, making such facilities attractive only for exports.

“The proposed tax changes will enable foreign companies to store and transfer critical equipment and components in India for their contract manufacturers, helping mitigate supply chain disruptions arising from trade uncertainties while providing greater tax certainty,” Riaz Thingna, a partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, told Reuters

Data Centers

India has also proposed to make it easier for foreign companies that use data center services in the country to make use of tax exemptions.

India in February announced a tax exemption until 2047 for foreign companies using data centers in the country to provide services to global clients, addressing concerns that New Delhi could in future tax their global income for using such facilities.

The bill now allows data centers to be leased, rather than be owned by the Indian partners of foreign companies.

Allowing Indian partners to lease, rather than own, data centers will lower capital requirements and make it easier for smaller and mid-sized players to enter the market, said Thingna.

MacDailyNews Take: May India convert these proposals into law ASAP!

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