For years, India’s smartphone market operated on a familiar promise — wait a few months, and the same amount of money would buy better specs such as more storage, more memory, better cameras, and a faster chip. That equation is now under pressure as global memory and storage prices rise, driven by relentless AI investments. Sandeep Singh Arora, chief business officer at Xiaomi India, tells HT that after some short-term hesitation, tech companies and consumers are adjusting to this new reality. Sandeep Singh Arora, chief business officer at Xiaomi India and (right) Anuj Sharma, Xiaomi India’s chief marketing officer. (Official image) “We are beginning to see the flywheel work again and demand returning,” he says, adding, “As prices go up across the industry, some customers will wait and watch. But we are also seeing the market start to stabilise as trade and consumers adapt. There is some short-term hesitation in parts of the chain.” Arora is concerned that supply is tightening fast. WD and Seagate say their 2026 enterprise hard-drive capacity is already fully allocated. …