Prior to 2010, Vietnam and India made up one percent of the global smartphone export market share. In 2022, Vietnam’s market share was 12 percent, while India’s was 14.5 percent.

The reports from UN Comtrade, ITC Trade Map and Indian Ministry of Trade and Industry show that Vietnam has outstripped South Korea to become the second largest smartphone manufacturer. 

Meanwhile, though China remains the biggest exporter, its market share has narrowed (49.4 percent in 2022 vs 53 percent in 2015). Prior to that, the Chinese market share had continuously increased since 2009. 

The Hindu reported that China is still in the No1 position, but Vietnam has been expanding its market share steadily in recent years.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the Indian Minister of Information Technology expressed his concern about the possibility of India lagging behind China and Vietnam in smartphone exports due to high tax rates on mobile devices.

While India has reduced import taxes on components such as lenses, batteries or back covers from 15 percent to 10 percent, India continues to impose a 20 percent tax on chargers and circuit boards.

Meanwhile, the 2022 report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam showed that the country produced 210.5 million smartphones and its major export markets included China, the US, EU, South Korea, UAE and Hong Kong (China).

Also in 2022, Vietnam’s smartphone and smartphone part export turnover reached $58 billion, an increase of 0.81 percent over 2021, accounting for 15.62 percent of Vietnam’s total export turnover. Of this, CBU smartphone exports brought turnover of $33.2 billion, up by 0.67 percent over the year before, accounting for 57.4 percent of total export turnover of products.

Analysts say Vietnam could become a smartphone production export powerhouse because of efforts by smartphone companies to ease reliance on China. The US, the biggest smartphone importer, places more orders with Southeast Asian countries.

In 2018-2022, the number of smartphones exported to the US increased by twofold, from 8.9 percent to 19.2 percent.  Meanwhile, India, which is running ‘Make in India’ strategy, just accounted for less than 2 percent of market share in the world’s largest economy.

The statistics from UN Comtrade and ITC Map also showed Vietnam’s slight increase in exports to Hong Kong (China), the second largest smartphone importer, to 1.2 percent.

In Japan, the fourth largest smartphone importer, Vietnam accounted for 6.2 percent of market share, three times higher than India’s. However, Vietnam’s market shares decreased sharply in the UAE and Germany, the third and fifth largest importers.

MOIT reported that by the end of 2022 Vietnam had exported 210 million smartphones.

Viet Nam Net