New Delhi/Mumbai: Consumer laptop sales in India’s $6 billion market may fall by double digits in the July-September quarter as surging chip prices hit demand, threatening the industry’s weakest festive season in years.
Overall laptop sales, including consumer, enterprise and government purchases, are likely to decline 5% in the September quarter, according to independent market research and analysis firm International Data Corporation (IDC). Consumer sales are expected to fall much more sharply as buyers balk at higher prices driven by surging memory-chip costs.
The chip crunch is rapidly changing the economics of laptops. Memory components such as RAM and SSDs now account for as much as 50% of a laptop’s bill of materials, said a senior sales executive at one of India’s top five laptop sellers.
Prices of those components have doubled this year amid the AI boom, the executive said, requesting anonymity as he's not authorized to speak publicly.
Laptop prices have already risen about 50%, according to Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India.
At least four industry executives confirmed that laptop prices have risen, and even doubled in some cases. An entry-level laptop that previously sold for about ₹30,000 now costs around ₹50,000, while a mid-range model priced at ₹50,000 is selling for about ₹80,000, according to data collated by Mint.
“The idea of a decent under- ₹50,000 laptop is a thing of the past,” Singh said, adding that the price increases are likely to weigh on consumer demand.
Nilesh Gupta, director and managing partner at electronics retailer Vijay Sales, said brands have indicated prices could rise another 15% to 20% through mid-2027, with increases likely to come in several rounds.
The impact is already showing up in sales indicators. A senior executive at one of India’s top five laptop sellers said the company’s internal data showed declines across imports, Microsoft ID activations and retail offtake tracked by market researcher GfK. Emails sent to HP, Lenovo and Dell did not receive responses.
The AI effect
Memory chips including RAM (for multitasking) and SSD (for storage) have increased to account for “up to 50%” of a laptop’s bill of materials since January, the executive cited above said, adding, “in the post-AI boom, the prices of these components have doubled just this year.”
IDC's Singh agreed, adding that for a laptop costing about ₹80,000, manufacturing costs have risen to ₹45,000 amid a sharp increase in memory chip prices.
"The PC market is experiencing pricing pressure driven by higher memory and storage costs,'' according to ASUS India spokesman. ``This reflects broader industry supply and demand dynamics rather than brand-specific decisions. ASUS is working closely with suppliers and strengthening its multi-supplier strategy to help mitigate these challenges while continuing to offer products across different price points.''
PC sales, more than 80% of which are laptops, rose to 4.9 million units in the September quarter of 2025 from 2.7 million in the same quarter of 2018, according to IDC. The only decline came in 2022, when consumer PC sales fell 10.2% after two years of pandemic-driven purchases.
The market had continued to grow this year, helped by fears of further price increases. Laptop sales rose 31% year-on-year in the March quarter and 12% in the June quarter, while consumer sales grew 11% and 6%, respectively.
Festive sales
The ongoing September quarter holds significance as it precedes India’s peak laptop sales season, which runs from regional festivals in September through the end of the year. This period alone accounts for more than a third of the full year’s electronics sales.
Acer India President and Managing Director Harish Kohli said laptop prices have risen 40% on average and by as much as 100% for some models. Government tenders have also been affected, with some scrapped because quoted prices exceeded existing budgets.
India’s five biggest laptop sellers—HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Acer—accounted for 86% of laptop sales in the first six months of the year.
While Vijay Sales expects supplies to remain steady during the festive season, a multi-outlet retailer in Kolkata said he has received no indication of adequate supplies and is seeing buyers postpone purchases after seeing higher prices.
“The question is what happens to demand if price hikes continue,” Gupta said.
A multi-outlet retailer in Kolkata, who requested anonymity because of brand-linked non-disclosure agreements, said he had received no indication that supplies would be adequate during the period.
“We’re only able to show a limited range of laptop variants to buyers. There too, most people see the higher prices and decide to shelve their purchases. If the festive season continues this way, we’d be very concerned,” the retailer said.