Gurugram/New Delhi, June 29, 2026. India’s consumer SSD market witnessed a significant correction in Q1 2026 amid rising NAND Flash prices, constrained supply, and weakening discretionary demand. According to the latest CMR India Consumer SSD Market Review by CyberMedia Research (CMR), Internal SSD shipments declined 34% year-on-year (YoY) and 47% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), while External SSD shipments fell 53% YoY.
According to Mukesh Sharma, Senior Analyst, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR), “The slowdown was driven by rising NAND Flash prices and continued supply tightness across the memory ecosystem. As pricing pressures intensified, India’s consumer SSD market remained highly price-sensitive, prompting consumers and channel partners to adopt a more cautious purchasing approach and defer upgrades. At the same time, evolving supply allocation priorities across the global storage industry influenced product availability and pricing in the consumer segment. To optimize costs, buyers increasingly gravitated toward branded systems and hybrid storage configurations that balance SSD performance with HDD capacity. While these factors moderated standalone SSD demand, interest in higher-performance and premium SSD solutions continues to grow.”
SSD Flash Market Highlights in Q1 2026:
Internal SSD market: Higher NAND prices and capacity migration made the internal SSD market value-led, lifting revenues despite lower shipments; SanDisk led with 16% share, Samsung and Hikvision each had 7%, and value-focused brands accounted for 62% of total internal SSD shipments during the quarter.
External SSD market: SanDisk dominated the external SSD market with a 66% shipment share, supported by strong brand recall and channel reach, while Samsung held 17%.
Looking Ahead
CMR expects India’s consumer SSD market to remain volume-constrained through CY2026 as elevated NAND prices and supplier prioritisation toward AI infrastructure and enterprise workloads continue.
Internal SSD shipments are projected to decline by approximately 35–40% by the end of CY2026, although revenues are expected to remain relatively stable due to higher ASPs and continued migration toward higher-capacity SKUs.
HDDs are also expected to retain relevance across entry-level assembled PC and cost-sensitive SMB segments through hybrid SSD+HDD configurations.
“As memory production expands and pricing stabilizes, recovery is expected from gaming PCs, AI‑capable notebooks, content‑creation rigs and enterprise digital‑transformation projects; however, strong AI, cloud, hyperscale and enterprise demand will keep shaping supplier allocations and limit near‑term consumer supply improvements,” added Bhaskar Negi, Analyst – Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR.
Notes for Editors
- Cyber Media Research (CMR) is a pioneering market intelligence and consulting firm that runs a comprehensive quarterly market update on the India Consumer Storage market. CMR’s India Quarterly Consumer SSD Market Review covers Internal SSD and External SSD sold via distributors and retail outlets. The report accounts for ‘legal’ shipments but does not include bundled or ‘grey’ market shipments or units brought from abroad by individuals as a part of personal baggage.
- CMR uses the term “shipments” to describe the number of Internal SSD devices leaving the factory premises for OEM sales or stocking by distributors and retailers. For the convenience of media, the term ‘shipment’ is sometimes replaced by “sales” in the press release, but this reflects the market size in terms of units of hard drive devices and not their absolute value.
