EMI plans are quietly propping up India’s entire smartphone market

Financing, not features, kept India’s premium smartphone market afloat this past quarter. Counterpoint Research found that NBFC and credit-card EMI plans accounted for more than half of all mainline smartphone sales in the June quarter, and it was this financing wave that kept sales of devices priced above Rs 45,000 largely stable even as the overall market slumped.

That stability at the top was the exception. Overall, India’s smartphone shipments fell 10% year-on-year in the June quarter, the steepest quarterly drop in three years, last matched in the January-March period of 2023. The pain was concentrated in the mass market: phones priced under Rs 15,000 saw sales fall 45% year-on-year.

Behind the slump is a memory-chip price shock. Component costs have climbed nearly four-fold since September 2025, pushing manufacturers to raise retail prices repeatedly through the year; average smartphone prices were up roughly 15% by the close of the June quarter. Combined with softer discretionary spending, that pushed many buyers to delay upgrades altogether.

The brand rankings reflect the squeeze. Vivo kept the top spot with 17.8% share despite a double-digit sales decline, ahead of Oppo at 13.6% and Xiaomi (including Poco) at 13.4%, with Realme fifth at 10%. Xiaomi, Poco and Realme were each hurt by repeated price increases on their budget line-ups, while Oppo offset some of the damage with stronger sales of phones priced above Rs 20,000.

Samsung was the only top-five brand to add volume, growing shipments 2% year-on-year to a 17.6% share and closing the gap on Vivo. Apple, meanwhile, saw shipments dip 3% as robust demand for the iPhone 17 series ran up against supply constraints and inventory shortages at retail.

Counterpoint senior analyst Prachir Singh noted that because most Chinese brands are heavily exposed to the entry- and mid-tier price bands, their combined market share fell to its lowest level for a second consecutive April-June quarter since 2020 — a sign that the memory-price shock is reshaping India’s smartphone pecking order, not just dampening volumes for a quarter.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/by Victorgrigas