More launches, limited choices: What is happening in consumer electronics?

Brands are stretching smartphones and televisions across more configurations and price points as weak demand, rising component costs and longer replacement cycles make new product development riskier

India's consumer electronics market appears to be witnessing a surge in product launches. A closer look, however, suggests that brands are introducing more versions of the same products rather than significantly expanding their portfolios. The shift reflects a market where replacement cycles are getting longer, component costs remain high and manufacturers face growing pressure to protect margins.

 

According to market tracker Techarc, India recorded 257 consumer electronics launch entries across smartphones, smart televisions, laptops and tablets during the April-June quarter. Smart televisions led with 113 entries, followed by smartphones with 99.

 

While the headline figure suggests a rapid product launch cycle, the underlying data tells a different story.

 

 

Smartphone launch entries increased from 38 in the second quarter of 2025 to 99 in the corresponding period of 2026. The number of distinct models, however, rose only from 38 to 53. The gap indicates that brands are increasingly relying on additional random-access memory (RAM) and storage variants to broaden their portfolios instead of developing entirely new smartphones.

The same pattern is visible in televisions, with several product series introduced in as many as five screen-size variants.

 

Laptops and tablets remained relatively straightforward, with most launches comprising a single stock-keeping unit (SKU). Techarc's data shows that Asus alone accounted for more than half of all laptop launches during the quarter.

 

Even these categories, however, increasingly offer different processor and memory configurations over a product's lifecycle.

Weak demand shapes launch strategies

The shift towards variants comes as the broader consumer electronics industry faces weak demand. According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in India declined 10 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter of calendar year 2026, marking the steepest second-quarter fall in six years.

 

Globally, Counterpoint estimated smartphone shipments fell 11 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, while Omdia estimated a 4 per cent decline. International Data Corporation (IDC) pegged worldwide smartphone shipments at 277.5 million units, down 6.7 per cent.

 

The personal computer market showed a similar trend.

 

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker showed global PC shipments falling 4.9 per cent year-on-year to 68.2 million units during the second quarter of 2026. It was the first quarterly decline after nine consecutive quarters of growth.

 

Omdia estimated a slightly smaller decline of 3.6 per cent.

Why brands are launching more variants

It may be tempting to view the variant strategy as an attempt by brands to extract more value from their most successful products.

 

Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst at Techarc, disagrees with that assessment. "It's not about going with successful ones. It's about having a lesser portfolio, as creating a new ID or model means additional burden," he said.

The bigger driver, he added, is procurement leverage. Selling higher volumes of a single model gives brands more room to negotiate with component suppliers.

 

"It increases the volumes for a single ID or model, which gives them economies to negotiate better prices with key component suppliers like chipset makers. The pricing with chipset makers works on how many million units are sold per platform or model," Kawoosa said.

 

Variants also allow manufacturers to address a broader range of buyers at a lower development cost.

 

A smartphone introduced with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage may later be joined by a version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Each variant occupies a different price band while retaining nearly identical hardware.

 

For television brands, increasing or reducing the screen size serves a similar purpose.

 

Laptops and tablets have so far largely retained single-SKU launches, but Kawoosa expects that to change.

 

"We will get to see this trend in other categories, like laptops and tablets, soon," he said.

Rising component costs add pressure

The industry's growing preference for variants also reflects rising manufacturing costs.

 

Memory prices have increased sharply over the past year as manufacturers diverted production capacity towards artificial intelligence data centres, pushing up dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash storage costs.

 

According to Omdia, memory and storage account for more than 60 per cent of the bill of materials for budget smartphones, leaving manufacturers with limited room to absorb higher component costs.

 

Launching entirely new products has therefore become riskier, particularly in lower price segments where margins are already thin.

 

The impact is visible in Techarc's data.

 

The average launch price of smartphones reached Rs 35,990 during the quarter, about 69 per cent higher than in the corresponding period last year. This was the sharpest increase after two years in which launches had leaned more towards budget devices.

 

Nearly half of all laptop launches, or 44.7 per cent, were priced above Rs 1.5 lakh.

 

Among smart televisions, models with screens larger than 65 inches formed the single biggest launch segment, accounting for 34.5 per cent of entries.

Higher prices do not always mean premium products

The rise in launch prices may appear to indicate premiumisation, but Kawoosa said that explanation is only partly accurate.

 

"There is no premiumisation as such. It is usual stepping up," he said.

 

"Now that volumes of users were stepping up from mid to premium, we feel it's premiumisation. In fact, for affordable segments, it's a forced premiumisation — users in these segments are forced to pay more without a holistic upgrade in experience."

 

Kawoosa traced the premiumisation narrative to a deliberate strategy adopted by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

 

"Earlier, OEMs built this premiumisation narrative very cleverly, as they wanted to focus on profits rather than revenues, since markets weren't expanding anyway and replacement cycles were getting longer," he said.

 

"Now the prices are pushed by component pricing, and there is nothing premium in many models when compared to their predecessors."

 

What appears to be brands moving upmarket by choice is, in many cases, a result of rising costs pushing prices higher.

 

Manufacturers have also spent recent years building a premiumisation narrative that helps them absorb those increases without alarming buyers.

New sub-series fill widening price gaps

The growing number of RAM, storage and screen-size variants is only one way brands are adapting their portfolios.

 

Several smartphone makers have also introduced new sub-series to fill pricing gaps created as their existing line-ups move upmarket.

 

OnePlus, for instance, expanded its portfolio with the new N series, while Nothing introduced the B series alongside its existing Phone (A) line-up.

 

Both companies had previously positioned the Nord and Phone (A) series as their mainstream offerings.

 

As average selling prices across the industry have increased, the new product lines appear aimed at offering lower specifications at more accessible prices without reducing the prices of existing devices.

 

The strategy allows manufacturers to retain consumers who may otherwise be priced out as their core product families become more expensive.

 

Rather than replacing older models, brands are adding new entry points below them, creating a broader product ladder for different budgets.

 

The approach complements the growing use of variants.

 

Additional RAM and storage configurations allow brands to stretch a device across several price points, while new sub-series help them enter segments that their existing portfolios no longer adequately cover