In transient: In information that comes as little shock, Chinese exports of iPhones fell dramatically in April, whereas these from India elevated by 76% year-over-year. It comes as Cupertino focuses extra on India as a producing level for its handsets amid the uncertainty of the China tariffs. However, Donald Trump just lately threatened a 25% tariff on Apple if it does not begin making iPhones solely in the US.
New figures from Canalys, now a part of Omdia, present that iPhone imports from China into the US reached 900,000 items in April, marking a 76% year-on-year lower.
By distinction, the variety of US-bound iPhones despatched from India final month was round 3 million, marking a 76% rise in contrast to the similar month in April 2024.
The 3.9 million iPhones imported from each international locations in April is notably decrease than throughout the different months of 2025. But that is due to Apple transporting 5 planeloads of iPhones and different merchandise – round 600 tons in all – from India and China to the US over a three-day span throughout the ultimate week of March, simply forward of Trump’s preliminary 10% tariff. India was additionally accountable for extra iPhone shipments to the US in March.
While the baseline tariff for many international locations is 10%, China faces a further 30% in duties. It’s why Apple, which first began producing iPhones in India in 2017, is quickly shifting manufacturing to the nation from China.
In April, it was reported that as a direct results of the tariffs on China, Apple is racing to transfer all meeting of iPhones destined for the US market from China to India by the finish of 2026.
It’s estimated that Apple will want to double its annual iPhone output in India from about 40 million to greater than 80 million items to meet its new goal. That would require vital funding and enlargement of native services, however Le Xuan Chiew, a analysis supervisor at Omdia, says (through CNBC) India’s manufacturing capability is not anticipated to develop quick sufficient to take the entirety of US demand.
Another drawback for Apple arrived final week when Trump gave the firm an ultimatum: construct iPhones in the US or pay a tariff of no less than 25% on its handsets made outdoors of the nation.
“I’ve way back knowledgeable Tim Cook of Apple that I anticipate their iPhone’s that will likely be offered in the United States of America will likely be manufactured and inbuilt the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote in a submit on his Truth Social platform. “If that isn’t the case, a Tariff of no less than 25% have to be paid by Apple to the U.S.” The warning got here quickly after the president warned Tim Cook in opposition to increasing iPhone meeting in India.
A very US-made iPhone wouldn’t solely be near-impossibility due to Apple utilizing 2,700 elements from 187 suppliers, however it might additionally see the worth of the handsets skyrocket. Even if Apple managed to do it, the course of would take years.