The Indian market is the largest overseas market for Chinese mobile phones, and nearly one-third of China's overseas shipments are sold in the Indian market. With the growth of the Indian mobile phone market, Indian mobile phone brands are now staging a comeback, intending to reclaim the market that was snatched away by Chinese mobile phones.

Recently, the Indian mobile phone brand Lava launched a new mobile phone with a familiar appearance that is quite similar to the Xiaomi 11 Ultra. It is equipped with the latest Dimensity 7300 in terms of configuration, and the price is as low as over 1700 yuan. Such an appearance and price are quite attractive.

The launch of such a mobile phone by Lava may pose a significant threat to Chinese mobile phones. After all, Chinese mobile phones have gained the majority share in the Indian market - nearly 60% of the market share - by leveraging their cost-effectiveness advantage. China's mid-to-low-end mobile phones have gained popularity among many users in the Indian market, and Lava is targeting exactly this market segment.

In fact, before 2014, Indian local mobile phone brands such as Micromax and Lava once dominated the Indian mobile phone market. Among the top five mobile phone brands, all except Samsung were Indian local brands. Micromax even briefly surpassed Samsung in the third quarter of 2014, briefly taking the top spot in the Indian mobile phone market.

However, as Chinese mobile phones entered the Indian market, these Indian local mobile phone brands quickly declined. Today, the top five mobile phone brands in India are four Chinese mobile phone brands and Samsung, while Indian mobile phone brands have been classified as 'others.' Nevertheless, significant changes have taken place in the Indian local mobile phone market and the Indian mobile phone industry chain in the past two years.

Due to well-known reasons, Chinese mobile phone brands have seen a continuous decline in sales in India over the past two years. The sales of a Chinese mobile phone brand that once dominated the Indian mobile phone market for six consecutive years have plunged, once dropping to third place in the Indian market, highlighting a change in Indian consumers' attitude towards Chinese mobile phones.

On the other hand, India's mobile phone industry chain is on the rise. Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron manufacture iPhones in India, driving the development of India's mobile phone industry chain. Interestingly, Foxconn and others have cultivated their own competitors in India. In the first half of this year, a Foxconn factory that exclusively manufactured a certain Chinese mobile phone brand lost 70% of its orders, which were taken over by Indian local mobile phone contract manufacturers.

The development of India's mobile phone industry chain can be traced back to 2017, when a Chinese mobile phone brand partnered with Foxconn to establish a factory in India. This marked the beginning of India's mobile phone manufacturing industry. Prior to this, Indian manufacturing had been an unattainable goal. After the successful establishment of the factory in India by the Chinese mobile phone brand and Foxconn, it attracted Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron to set up factories in India to produce iPhones in 2019. Later, Wistron was acquired by the Indian conglomerate Tata, while Pegatron had its controlling stake taken over by Tata.

With the improvement of India's mobile phone industry chain, Indian local mobile phone brands have once again seen an opportunity. Nowadays, Lava is copying the appearance of Chinese mobile phones and launching cost-effective mobile phones to compete with Chinese mobile phones. Naturally, this mobile phone is manufactured in India, relying on the ultra-low cost of Indian manufacturing, posing a significant threat to Chinese mobile phones.

Lava's launch of cost-effective mobile phones may only be the beginning. Once it succeeds, other Indian local mobile phone brands will follow suit, and Chinese mobile phones are likely to decline rapidly in India, just as foreign mobile phone brands did in the Chinese market years ago. It can be said that this is entirely a case of Chinese mobile phones lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet. Facing such consequences, do Chinese mobile phones regret setting up factories in India to produce mobile phones?