As Tim Cook steps down as CEO of Apple after fifteen years of leadership, India occupies a completely different place in the company's plans. Previously, back in May 2016, during Cook's visit to Hyderabad, Apple opened its map development center and announced an iOS design and app development accelerator in Bengaluru, giving more tangible shape to the company's long-standing ambitions in India.
Today, the situation has changed drastically. According to Bloomberg, Apple's annual sales in India first exceeded $10 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2026. The company's network of physical stores has expanded far beyond the initial locations opened in Mumbai and Delhi in 2023. Furthermore, about 55 million iPhones were assembled in India in 2025, accounting for roughly a quarter of Apple's global production.
Cook initially viewed India as two potential avenues: a growing market for Apple products and an alternative manufacturing base to reduce dependence on China. These two bets developed unevenly, and neither reached full fruition. Apple remains a premium player in a price-sensitive smartphone market, and India is still far from achieving the depth and efficiency of an electronics supply chain comparable to China's.
However, Cook left a company for which India is no longer just a market that is about to emerge; it is now a central part of how Apple sells its products and where it manufactures its most critical goods.
Cook's optimism about India arose long before Apple's commercial breakthrough in the country. The possibility was clear: India possessed a large, young population, a growing income level, and hundreds of millions of smartphone users. Nevertheless, turning these advantages into iPhone sales proved to be a complex process.
High import duties made Apple products more expensive, and regulations governing foreign companies' retail trade complicated store opening plans. The company also competed in a market where the largest volume of sales came from devices significantly cheaper than the iPhone.
Apple did not attempt to conquer the mass Indian market, waiting for more Indian consumers to switch to the iPhone. The company began local assembly of iPhones in 2017, initially using Wistron to produce older models in Bengaluru. Local assembly helped mitigate some drawbacks associated with importing finished devices.
In 2020, Apple launched its online store in India, establishing direct contact with customers. In April 2023, Cook returned to India to open the company's first physical stores in Mumbai and Delhi. Since then, the retail network has expanded to other cities. These stores served not only as points of sale; they gave Apple greater control over product presentation, allowing it to offer financing, trade-in programs, and technical support directly to customers.
Simultaneously, the Indian smartphone market transformed: more consumers were willing to pay for premium devices. Brand accessibility to a wider audience was achieved through interest-free installments, trade-in programs, and more affordable older iPhone models, without requiring Apple to abandon its premium positioning. Apple's revenue in India in the year ending March 2023 was nearly $6 billion, up from $4.1 billion the previous year. Within three years, annual sales reportedly exceeded $10 billion.
In one of his recent earnings calls, Tim Cook expressed extreme satisfaction with the growth in India, considering the country one of Apple's strongest markets. This growth is significant because Apple achieved it without heavily engaging in the segments generating the highest volume of smartphone sales in India. Instead, the company benefited from the expansion of the premium category, which it helped shape. However, perhaps the most significant part of Cook's legacy lies in manufacturing.
Long before he replaced Steve Jobs as CEO, Cook was an operator who ensured the timely operation of Apple's 'trains.' He optimized inventory, suppliers, and production, creating a supply chain capable of producing complex devices at massive scale and high profitability. This system also made Apple heavily dependent on China. The pandemic, factory disruptions, rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, and the threat of tariffs exposed the risks of this concentration. Apple needed additional manufacturing centers, even if a complete replacement of China was neither practical nor desirable.
India became Apple's most important alternative base for iPhone manufacturing. What started in 2017 with the assembly of older devices expanded to include the newest and premium Apple models. Foxconn increased its manufacturing footprint, while Tata Electronics became a major Indian partner after acquiring Wistron's local operations and gaining a controlling stake in Pegatron's business in India.
According to Bloomberg, in 2025, Apple assembled about 55 million iPhones in India, a 53% increase from the previous year. This accounted for approximately 25% of the estimated global iPhone production. India now supplies a growing share of iPhones sold in Apple's largest consumer market—the US. In 2025, Cook stated that most iPhones sold in the US in the June quarter would have India as their country of origin. At the same time, Vietnam would supply most iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and AirPods sold in the US. This is the true significance of the manufacturing story in India: India is not just manufacturing iPhones for Indian consumers; it is becoming an export base for Apple's global operations.
iPhone exports from India exceeded an estimated 2 lakh crore in the fiscal year 26, according to reports based on supplier data and government trade statistics. Apple's suppliers now constitute a substantial portion of the country's smartphone exports, making the company one of the most visible beneficiaries of the production incentive program linked to electronics manufacturing in India.
For the Indian government, Apple serves as proof that global electronics supply chains can be persuaded to move to the country. For Apple, India offers scale, political support, and an alternative to excessive concentration of production in China. It also gives the company greater flexibility when tariffs and geopolitics increasingly influence production locations.
However, the rapid growth in iPhone production may create the impression that Apple's presence in India is deeper than it actually is. India is assembling a growing number of iPhones, but many high-value components within them still come from abroad. China retains a network of suppliers, engineers, tooling companies, logistics providers, and skilled workers built up over several decades.
This ecosystem allows Apple to transition from product design to mass production with a speed and flexibility that India cannot yet achieve. This difference matters. Producing more finished iPhones does not automatically mean India captures a proportional share of their value. The next phase will depend on whether Apple and its partners can localize more components, improve manufacturing metrics, develop specialized skills, and attract a wider range of suppliers to the country. India must also ensure stable policy, efficient ports, reliable infrastructure, and large reserves of trained workers necessary to support Apple-scale factories.
Consumer opportunities face similar limitations. Although India surpassed $10 billion in annual sales for Apple, the iPhone remains inaccessible to most smartphone buyers. Apple must find ways to reach more consumers without weakening the premium positioning that supports its margin and brand. This is the unfinished part of Cook's bet in India. It is also a task that Ternus will inherit.
Cook is leaving the CEO position but is not leaving Apple. Starting September 1st, he will become Executive Chairman and continue to assist the company, including interacting with policymakers. John Ternus, a long-time head of Apple's hardware engineering, takes over as CEO just as the company faces questions about artificial intelligence, its next major product category, and supply chain resilience. India will play a central role in how Ternus resolves at least one of these issues: Apple's dependence on China.
Ternus must build consumer momentum by expanding retail, strengthening the developer ecosystem, and increasing service sales alongside devices. Regarding manufacturing, the task is to move India beyond final assembly and make it a larger source of components, engineering expertise, and manufacturing capacity. More Indian customers give Apple a reason to invest here. A deeper local supply chain, in turn, makes India more important to Apple globally. When I saw Cook near the Hyderabad airport in 2016, Apple's ambitions in India were largely based on what the company planned to do next. A decade later, factories, stores, and sales figures have made this bet much more concrete.
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