The same money now buys less phone and laptop in India

A phone or laptop that cost a given amount a year ago now costs more, and may come with less. The reason is the memory shortage, and it is the longest-running price story in the shops this festive season. The iPhone Duo piece treated it as one factor among several. This is the whole story, for the phones and laptops most people actually buy.

The numbers

Counterpoint says smartphone memory prices have risen nearly four times since September 2025, and could reach five times in the coming months. That is the cost of the memory itself, not the price of a phone. India’s average smartphone price rose about 16% in the first half of 2026, to a record $318 in the June quarter. Phones under ₹10,000 rose the most, around 32%. By Counterpoint’s September comparison, average retail prices in India are up 21% on last year, against 15% globally.

Buyers have noticed. India’s smartphone shipments fell 10% year on year from April to June, the steepest June-quarter drop in six years. Laptops follow the same arithmetic. Gartner estimates that combined DRAM and SSD prices rise about 130% by the end of 2026, which lifts PC prices 17% and phone prices 13% globally against 2025. It also expects memory to grow from 16% to 23% of a PC’s parts cost, a share at which low-margin entry-level laptops stop being viable to build.

Apple shows how it reaches you

AIMRA and Counterpoint data showed Apple taking an indirect route on the iPhone 15, 16 and 17 series: it withdrew discounts of ₹5,000 to ₹6,000 instead of announcing a hike.

Then, in June, list prices on Macs went up. The 13-inch MacBook Air with 16GB and 512GB went from ₹1,19,900 to ₹1,49,900, up 25%. The MacBook Neo went from ₹69,900 to ₹79,900. The 256GB Mac mini went from ₹59,900 to ₹94,900. GSMArena reported that the India increases came out larger than in other regions.

By September, with the Duo launch, Inc42 reported the iPhone 16 up ₹16,000, the iPhone 17 up ₹17,000 and the iPhone Air up ₹30,000. The sources tie these increases to memory costs, but nothing cited here has Apple saying so. Counterpoint also says the weak rupee adds to import costs, so not all of the rise is memory.

Less, and not only more

The other way to pass on a cost is to take something out. TrendForce has said that Dell, Lenovo and Framework face pressure to move mid-range laptops that would have shipped with 16GB down to 8GB. No confirmed India example turned up in the sources used here, so check the RAM and storage line on any listing before you compare prices. Apple’s own store still lists the MacBook Air from 16GB.

When it ends

TrendForce expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise another 10% to 15% in October to December and NAND flash 15% to 20%. It says the supply of DRAM for PCs could shrink further in 2027 as capacity moves to servers. Counterpoint does not expect memory prices to fall before 2028. The two analysts are talking about different things, supply in one case and prices in the other, and both are forecasts.

That is the known issue. It has run for more than a year, the analysts quoted here expect it to run for at least another, and sale-season advice still assumes a cheaper price is coming. Read the festive-sale piece before you let a “% off” badge make the decision for you.