Overview
- Manufacturers have kept raising retail prices: Realme announced a fresh round of increases on Aug. 19 that lifted select models by up to ₹4,000 and OnePlus updated its site on Aug. 20 showing rises of as much as ₹4,000 on several popular phones.
- Market data show the strain: India smartphone shipments fell while average selling prices rose, with IDC reporting an 11.1% year-on-year drop in Q2 2026 and a roughly 14.4% jump in average selling price.
- Industry sources point to memory costs as the main driver, saying DRAM and high-bandwidth memory are being redirected to AI and data-centre builds, tightening supply and raising the bill of materials for phones.
- The result is a shift in buying patterns: premium and super-premium demand, including foldable phones, is holding up while budget models feel the most pain and some shoppers opt for older 4G phones or delay purchases.
- Retailers and analysts expect festival-season discounts to be muted, with savings concentrated in bank and exchange offers of roughly ₹5,000–10,000 rather than deep upfront price cuts, a dynamic that could squeeze volumes and OEM margins.