TL; DR
- DRAM and NAND costs rose 85% in Q1 2026, with one other 30% rise anticipated by This autumn.
- Reminiscence makes up ~27% of a foldable’s invoice of supplies, exposing it greater than common telephones.
- Samsung is absorbing prices for now, however analysts don’t count on steep festive reductions this 12 months.
When you’ve been sitting on the sting about shopping for a Samsung foldable, analysts monitoring India’s smartphone provide chain have a transparent message: you won’t be capable of get it on the launch worth endlessly.
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Why Reminiscence Chips Are The Actual Story Right here
In line with Counterpoint Analysis Director Tarun Pathak, DRAM and NAND costs surged 85% in Q1 2026 alone, pushed by the AI business’s voracious demand for reminiscence and more and more proprietary chip designs straining international provide.
Pathak expects one other 30% improve between Q2 and This autumn 2026, with no indicators of reduction over the subsequent two years. That issues, particularly for foldables; reminiscence reportedly accounts for round 27% of a foldable’s whole invoice of supplies, far greater than on a traditional cellphone, making units just like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 sequence unusually uncovered to this price spiral.
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What This Means For Costs
| Analyst | Key Warning |
| Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint Analysis | DRAM/NAND up 85% in Q1 2026; one other 30% rise anticipated by way of This autumn |
| Abhilash Kumar, Sensible Analytics World | India smartphone shipments prone to decline in Q3/This autumn 2026 |
| Abhilash Kumar | Festive season reductions unlikely to match earlier years’ depth |
| Prabhu Ram, CMR | Premium section nonetheless rising, however greater configs face sustained worth stress |
| Samsung (JB Park) | Z Fold 8 sequence + Z Flip 8 crossed 271,000 India pre-orders in 72 hours |
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Abhilash Kumar of Sensible Analytics World expects India’s total smartphone shipments to say no by way of the again half of 2026 as reminiscence prices push new launches to greater worth factors, and warns that this 12 months’s festive season is unlikely to convey the steep reductions patrons have come to count on.
Samsung itself has leaned into this second quite than away from it. JB Park has mentioned Samsung intentionally saved its worth will increase smaller than rivals and leaned on long-term zero-cost EMI to melt the affect for patrons, whereas privately acknowledging this has meant absorbing a big margin hit internally.
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When you’ve already been contemplating a Fold 8 (review), Fold 8 Ultra (review), or Flip 8 (hands-on), the analyst consensus factors in the identical path: present pricing could also be the very best it will get for some time, and the festive reductions you’re used to could merely not present up this 12 months.
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