‘RAMpocalypse’ is hurting Chinese OEMs in India as Samsung, Apple grow smartphone market share
India is the world’s second-largest smartphone market and also the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, with over 99% of the devices sold in the country produced domestically. Chinese brands including BBK Electronics-owned Vivo, Oppo, along with Xiaomi and its sub-brands traditionally dominated the Indian market, especially the budget segments, with Samsung being the only notable exemption.
Chip shortage hurting smartphone sales
But the Indian smartphone market is witnessing a paradigm shift due to what is often described as ‘RAMpocalypse’, which is driven by a severe global crisis of memory and storage chip shortages due to massive AI data center demands.
This has had a dual impact in India’s budget smartphone market, resulting in a drop in shipments and an increase in selling prices. According to the data by International Data Corporation (IDC) in the second quarter of 2026, brands such as Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Realme witnessed a sharper double-digit decline in shipments in India.
Vivo witnessed a 13% year-on-year decline, and its market share dropped from 19% a year ago to 18.4% in the second quarter, while Realme saw a 14.2% decline. Xiaomi, which held a 9.7% market share, saw its shipments fall 10% year-on-year and Oppo, which has a 13.8% market share, witnessed an 8.5% decline in shipments.
Other Chinese brands also reported declines. Poco, OnePlus and iQOO recorded year-on-year shipment declines of 12.3%, 2.5% and 61%, respectively.
IDC data also showed that smartphone shipments fell 11.1% year-on-year to 33.2 million units in the second quarter, taking the shipments in the first-half of 2026 to 64.2 million units, the lowest first-half volume in five years.
According to IDC, shipments of smartphones priced below $100 ( ₹10,000) saw the biggest drop during the second quarter and plunged 74.3% year-on-year.
Apple, Samsung hold steady
Notably, Samsung, despite its shipments remaining largely flat, has strengthened its market share to 16.4% in the second quarter. While Samsung’s market share increased by nearly 200 basis points, Apple’s rose 100 basis points in the June quarter and enjoyed an 8% market share.
On Chinese brands losing market share, IDC noted that they suffered from cost-cutting and portfolio shifts toward higher-margin models, which were already underway.
“The harder challenge was convincing price-sensitive buyers raised on budget positioning to accept meaningfully higher price tags. With financing options narrowing the price gap between segments, several leading Chinese manufacturers saw sharper, double-digit declines as demand tilted toward brands with stronger scale and supply chain stability,” it noted.
What is next for Indian market?
According to IDC, whether the market stabilizes will depend less on brands cutting prices and more on how well they can lean on financing, exchange offers, and affordability-led schemes to keep demand moving through the festive season.
“Heading into the festive season, financing options will be key to keeping affordability within reach, alongside product differentiation in the mid-premium segment, to sustain consumer demand.” said Aditya Rampal, senior research analyst, Devices Research, IDC Asia Pacific.
