India's Smartphone Market Slumps: Why Buyers Are Holding On To Old Phones | The Palki Sharma Show

India’s Smartphone Market Slows Sharply

India’s smartphone market is in a sharp slowdown despite the festive shopping season. Shipments to retailers fell 26% in July–September 2026 to 35.8 million units—the lowest third-quarter total since 2016. Shipments measure phones supplied to stores, not phones bought by consumers.

Why Buyers Are Holding Back

Rising prices are discouraging upgrades. Disrupted trade routes and higher transport costs have increased production expenses, while the AI boom has driven up demand for memory chips. Phone makers are competing with AI companies for those chips and, according to the report, passing higher costs on to customers.

Many buyers are keeping their existing phones, choosing cheaper models, or looking for better deals rather than stopping purchases altogether.

Brand Performance

• Samsung regained the top position, shipping 6.7 million phones. Its lower-priced Galaxy A series and offers such as cashbacks, trade-ins, and payment plans supported its performance.
• Vivo fell to second place, with shipments down 34%.
• Oppo and Xiaomi also saw significant declines after raising prices by 20%.
• Apple shipped 3.9 million phones.

A Shift in Consumer Attitudes

The slowdown may signal that a new phone is no longer an automatic status purchase. Buyers are weighing whether an upgrade is worth the cost, and brands will need to offer useful phones at prices consumers can afford.

Presenter: Palki Sharma