After Apple, India’s smartphone manufacturing boom enters a new phase with the Vivo JV

India on Thursday approved a manufacturing joint venture between China’s Vivo and local manufacturer Dixon Technologies, a move that could mark the next phase of the country’s smartphone manufacturing boom after Apple helped turn India into a global smartphone manufacturing hub.

The approval allows Vivo to continue a long-delayed manufacturing partnership that was first announced in December 2024, after New Delhi canceled investments under investment rules introduced in 2020 that require additional government scrutiny of investments from countries that share a land border with India – a category that includes China. The joint venture will acquire some manufacturing assets from Vivo, produce a portion of the company’s smartphone orders in India, and may produce electronic products of other brands, according to a stock exchange filing by Noida-based Dixon.

The 51/49 business – majority owned by Dixon, with Vivo holding the remaining stake – reflects a broader shift in the way Chinese smartphones are expanding production in India through local partnerships. In an industry watching how governments view the relationship between Chinese capital and domestic production, the structure, analysts believe, could be a template for similar arrangements across the industry, helping to expand the story of Indian smartphone manufacturing beyond Apple.

Over the past few years, India has emerged as a major global smartphone manufacturing hub as Apple and its suppliers ramp up iPhone production in the country while diversifying supply chains beyond China. Government incentives have also helped attract global electronics manufacturers, increasing the country’s role in global smartphone production.

Apple has spent years building a manufacturing base in India and today accounts for 57% of the country’s smartphone shipments by volume, according to Counterpoint Research data shared with TechCrunch. Chinese brands, on the other hand, dominate the smartphone market in India with 72% of the market, but contribute less than 10% of exports, a gap that shows how much is wrong on the table if they start exporting from India the way Apple does.

Apple’s India production expansion has been largely driven by suppliers such as Foxconn and Tata. Chinese smartphone brands, meanwhile, are increasingly exploring ties with Indian companies after New Delhi tightened investment rules in neighboring countries following a 2020 border dispute with China. Several of those companies, including Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, have also faced tax and regulatory scrutiny in India in recent years, which helps explain why giving majority control to an Indian partner now looks like a more sustainable way forward.

Local partnerships like the Dixon-Vivo venture offer Chinese brands a stable business model, while also aligning with India’s goal of greater local participation in electronics manufacturing, said Tarun Pathak, director of research at Counterpoint Research.

“The approval of this partnership creates a win-win for both players,” Pathak told TechCrunch. He added that the multi-Indian ownership structure provides Vivo with greater policy alignment while giving Dixon the scale to deepen local value addition and pursue exports.

Vivo has manufactured and exported smartphones from India for years, but the franchise business is signaling a shift to a more Indian-owned manufacturing structure as the market leader deepens its footprint in the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The Chinese smartphone vendor retained the top spot in the Indian smartphone market with a 23% shipment share in Q1, per Counterpoint.

For Dixon, India’s largest consumer electronics company, the business could add an estimated 20 to 22 million units of annual production value, based on current Vivo sales, according to comments by Managing Director Atul Lall during the company’s earnings call. That’s a logical increase in volume for a public company whose growth increasingly depends on winning these types of manufacturing contracts.

Dixon already makes smartphones for Xiaomi, suggesting that Vivo’s business is building on its growing role as a manufacturing partner for both global and Chinese smartphones in India, and cementing its position as one of the most reliable bets in Indian electronics manufacturing.