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Global smartphone manufacturers view India as an essential, high-growth market that continues to sustain demand despite escalating prices of core components like memory and storage.
Speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the Qualcomm event at the 10th edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026 at Yashobhoomi, leaders from Xiaomi, Motorola, and iQOO underscored that Indian consumers are maturing rapidly, shifting preference toward advanced processing platforms and experience-led devices. Gautam Batra, Associate Director Product Marketing at Xiaomi, noted that consumer appetite remains resilient even as raw material expenses drive retail price adjustments across the industry. I think the prices are going up for, whether it's RAM, whether it's storage, and in turn the devices prices are also going up. I think the market is now aware it's been a long trend. It's not just a recent thing; it has been ongoing, and the market has now recalibrated according to it, and we see a good demand coming in even now, Batra told ANI. Highlighting the countrys weight in Xiaomis global portfolio, Batra stated that the domestic user base remains highly aspirational. India is of course a big market for us and for a lot of smartphone makers, OEMs and of course it is an aspirational market, Batra said. The Indian market is a huge big deal for us and of course a much faster growing market as well. Detailing product roadmaps, Batra announced that the newly unveiled Xiaomi 18 Pro flagship will feature the newly announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 platform across international and Indian channels to deliver upgraded graphics, photography, and artificial intelligence performance. Echoing this focus on consumer evolution, Shivam Ranjan, Marketing Head - APAC at Motorola, stated that Indian buyers are recalibrating how they evaluate handsets, placing greater emphasis on usability rather than isolated component data. I think India as a market has been constantly evolving over a period of time. We are seeing consumers becoming more mature, moving beyond just hard specifications or hardware specifications to now demanding experiences that are human centric and human first, Ranjan said. Ranjan previewed Motorola's upcoming Signature 27 handset, scheduled for rollout in 2026 as one of the earliest models powered by the Snapdragon 6 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset. He noted that the device integrates camera features, agentic AI, and hardware design aimed at addressing modern user requirements. Meanwhile, iQOO announced its forthcoming flagship device, the iQOO 16, built around Qualcomms Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 platform. Today we have announced the launch of iQOO 16, which is going to be our latest and the fastest smartphone ever. This is going to launch in India very soon, said Nipun Marya, CEO, iQOO, adding that further collaborative details with the chipset provider will be disclosed subsequently. (ANI)
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