AI Memory Crunch Drives Phone Prices Up in India as Global Shipments Face Steepest Decline in a Decade

A surge in AI data-center demand is squeezing the global memory supply, pushing up smartphone component costs and threatening India's price-sensitive market with higher prices, thinner discounts, and shrinking product lineups. Analysts warn the fallout could produce the largest single-year drop in worldwide smartphone shipments in more than a decade.