India's commercial refrigeration market is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by the quick commerce boom and intense competition among beverage companies like Reliance, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo. Manufacturers such as Blue Star, Voltas, and Haier report sales surging 25-50% since January.
As the largest foreign mobile phone maker in China's smartphone-dominated market, Apple's performance plays a significant role in the overall data on foreign-branded phone sales in the country.
The government is pushing air conditioner manufacturers to significantly increase exports. This follows the Production Linked Incentive scheme. The goal is to make India a major AC exporter, competing with China and Thailand. India aims to export 15-16 million AC units in four years. Currently, exports are around 2 million units. The government is seeking industry input on export challenges.
Apple significantly increased iPhone exports from India to the US, surging 76% year-on-year in April, while exports from China sharply declined. This shift reflects Apple's strategy to diversify production amid trade tensions and reduce reliance on China. Despite potential tariffs, manufacturing in the US remains less profitable for Apple, leading to continued investment in Indian production capacity.
Google has initiated direct online sales of its Pixel devices in India, including phones, watches, and earbuds, via the official Google Store website. This move precedes the anticipated launch of Google's first physical retail stores in India, mirroring Apple's successful retail strategy. While Apple dominates the premium phone market with a 55% share, Google's Pixel holds a 2% share.
The clarification has raised concerns within the smartphone industry, especially with the proposed deadline for implementation approaching at the end of June. According to South Korean publication FNNews, Samsung is particularly exposed, as it has no smartphone manufacturing presence in the US. Most of its devices are made in Vietnam and other overseas locations.
Auditors have raised concerns about the financial health and practices of Oppo and Realme's India units, citing bookkeeping issues, incomplete records, and a negative net worth for Oppo. These issues arise amidst ongoing regulatory scrutiny and investigations into the Chinese smartphone brands for alleged financial irregularities.
India's traditional PC market (desktops, notebooks and workstations) grew 8.1 per cent year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2025, with 3.3 million units shipped, a report showed on Monday.
Although Apple was initially the focus of Trump’s comments, the president widened the scope of the tariff warning to include other smartphone makers. “It would be anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn't be fair,” he said, naming South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Huawei. The tariffs are expected to take effect by the end of June 2025.
Shifting Apple’s manufacturing to the US would not be a feasible solution, though, they said, since that would increase the cost of the iPhone to $3,000 on average from the current price of around $1000 owing to the high cost of labour in the US.
Lenovo launched its first AI-powered PCs in China last May and followed that with a global rollout in September. CEO Yang Yuanqing has projected that AI PCs will account for a quarter of Lenovo's shipments by 2025, potentially reaching 80% by 2027.
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