Tech Desk 
Jul 06, 2025
Pakistan’s mobile phone market is in trouble in 2025, as sales of locally assembled handsets fell 8% in the first five months of the year, despite attempts to establish local production.
As per the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), from January to May 2025, local manufacturers manufactured or only assembled a total of 12.05 million units for domestic and overseas markets.
However, their production for the same period last year was 8% higher. The same downward trend was captured for the wider take of 11 months of FY25; total sales came in at 26.09 million units.
While total production increased 4% in April and May 2025 relative to the previous year, to a total of 4.84 million units, experts claim demand is still low.
The reasoning for 2024’s higher sales numbers was recorded almost entirely because of pent-up consumer demand after restrictions were lifted, which did not continue into 2025.
Industry stakeholders have cited a plethora of reasons for the fall in sales, with a major factor being perhaps the longer replacement cycle now, from 2.5 years to 3.5 years, whereas previously, one would replace a phone in an average of about 2 years.
Rising inflation and shrinking expenditures are part of the devastating economic slowdown, particularly in rural regions in Pakistan.
Additionally, there have not been many good, compelling new model launches that have made people rush into upgrading their phones.
Local production represents the highest share of mobile phones ever in Pakistan, too. In the first five months of 2025, 94% of mobile phone demand was satisfied through local assembly, a meaningful increase from its 2020–2024 average of 77%.
Based on 12.05 million achieved local assembly for mobile phone distribution, some 54% was for 2G feature phones and 46% was for smartphones.
Notably, the top brands included Infinix, VGO Tel, itel, Vivo, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Tecno, with Air Link Communication being a top assembler of Xiaomi and Tecno phones.
