India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market by shipments after China, saw a 10% year-over-year decline in smartphone shipments during the April-June quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. This marks the steepest June-quarter decline in six years, driven by higher memory costs that have increased handset prices. The impact has been more pronounced in India than in China, where shipments fell just 2% in Q2, according to Counterpoint. India has been hit harder because about 60% of its smartphone market is concentrated in the sub-₹20,000 (under $210) segment, where higher memory costs have had the biggest impact on prices, Tarun Pathak, the firm’s vice president of research, told TechCrunch.
The memory crunch, driven by AI demand for high-bandwidth memory chips, has left less capacity and driven up costs for everyday consumer electronics. Manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have been shifting production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory, the specialized chips used in AI accelerators, because they’re much more profitable per wafer than the standard memory used in phones and laptops. This shift has left less capacity, and driving up costs, for everyday consumer electronics. India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market by shipments after China, saw smartphone shipments fall 10% year-over-year in the April-June quarter, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research, marking the steepest June-quarter decline in six years as higher memory costs pushed up handset prices.
The uneven impact is already reshaping competition among smartphone makers. Samsung was the only major smartphone brand to post shipment growth in India in Q2, with volumes rising 2% year-over-year, according to Counterpoint. Apple, by contrast, saw shipments fall 3% — though that dip largely reflected supply constraints and inventory shortages limiting how many iPhones Apple could deliver. Consumers buying higher-end smartphones have proved less sensitive to price increases, with financing making expensive devices more affordable, Prachir Singh, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, told TechCrunch.
Source: techcrunch
