Twenty-one per cent. That is how much more Indian shoppers are paying for a phone this year than they did a year ago, and Counterpoint Research says no other market has seen a bigger jump. The global figure sits at 15%.
Memory is the cause. Counterpoint’s research director Tarun Pathak said memory now drives the cost of building a handset, “resetting pricing across the industry and leaving OEMs with limited room to absorb higher costs.” The firm’s price tracker shows over 40% of the models it follows were repriced upward this year. Counterpoint calls that unprecedented for the sector, and a few models have nearly doubled.
Why India sits at the top
The structure of the Indian market explains most of it. The research finds 51 per cent of Indian sales fall in the cheaper tiers, with handsets priced under Rs 20,000. A maker selling a cheap phone has little margin to swallow a more expensive memory chip, so the cost lands on the buyer. Phones above Rs 30,000 have seen smaller percentage rises.
The brands have not waited. Within a single month Realme is said to have added Rs 1,000-4,000 to the price of several phones. Oppo pushed some Reno and A-series handsets up by as much as Rs 5,000. Vivo’s increases ran Rs 500-4,000, though only in certain regions. Samsung marked up a number of S, M and F-series devices, and one Galaxy S25 variant is now Rs 12,000 dearer. OnePlus charged Rs 2,000-4,000 extra on a handful of its phones.
How other regions compare
Markets with a richer premium mix, or where operators bundle handsets into plans, have fared better. China is up 10%, Europe 7% and the US 5%. Postpaid plans in the US spread the extra cost across monthly bills, and most of the increase there has come through newly launched models, not older stock.
Elsewhere, price-sensitive regions have taken heavier hits. Asia Pacific is up 19%, the Middle East and Africa 18%, and Latin America 16%, where fewer promotional discounts pushed effective prices higher.
What buyers and makers are doing
Where prices are rising 16% to 21%, phones are simply harder to afford. Counterpoint says consumers are putting off upgrades, timing purchases around big sales, or moving to pre-owned handsets. On the supply side, manufacturers are trimming specifications: smaller storage options, fewer cameras, and in some price segments the return of 4G models.
Apple is the outlier. It has held iPhone prices steady even though memory prices have risen fourfold since Q4 2025. Senior analyst Karn Chauhan expects new smartphone prices to keep climbing over the coming quarters, the upcoming iPhone 18 series included.
Sources
- Existing Smartphone Prices Rise 15% in 2026 as Memory Costs Drive Hikes
- India's Smartphone Price Shock: Phones Get 21% Costlier In 2026, Highest Globally
