Gurugram/New Delhi, August 25, 2025: India’s consumer storage market is demonstrating renewed momentum. According to CyberMedia Research’s (CMR) latest India Consumer Storage Flash Devices Market Review Report for Q2 2025, shipments of consumer storage devices—including Micro SD cards, SD cards, and USB flash drives—registered a 16% year-on-year (YoY) growth, even as the market recorded a 1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) dip.
“USB pen drives are powering this resurgence, commanding a dominant 77% market share and posting 44% YoY growth,” said Mukesh Sharma, Senior Analyst, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR. “Their portability, plug-and-play ease, and adaptability to work and entertainment use cases ensure their continued relevance—at a time when integrated and cloud storage are reshaping consumer habits.”
In contrast to pen drives, removable flash memory formats are under sustained decline.
- Micro SD card shipments dropped 23% QoQ, with demand now concentrated in specialized use cases, such as drones, action cameras, and surveillance devices, rather than mainstream smartphone storage.
- SD card shipments contracted 19% QoQ, signaling the continued decline of legacy removable storage in everyday devices.
“Consumers increasingly rely on integrated storage options in smartphones and laptops, while cloud adoption is reshaping usage patterns. This shift is steadily eroding the demand for removable flash memory in mainstream devices,” Sharma observed.
Key Insights from CMR:
- Pen Drives: SanDisk leads with an impressive 68% market share in Q2 2025, followed by HP at 8% of shipments.
- Micro SD Cards: SanDisk commands an equally impressive 52% market share, with Hikvision in second place at 11% share.
- Camera Market: Over all Camera market space Sandisk is continues #1 with 78% Market share followed by Lexar 11% share
Capacity Trend:
- Flash Drives: The 32GB capacity remains the top choice, contributing 41% to the market share.
- Micro SD Cards: The 128 GB segment accounts for 38% of the market
Future Outlook
CMR estimates point to India’s consumer storage market to grow at a steady 6–8% annually in CY2025.
“India’s consumer storage market will be driven by AI-enabled devices, richer 4K and 8K content, and surging data consumption. USB pen drives will remain at the heart of this growth, supported by the shift to USB Type-C and faster transfer speeds. While cloud adoption is expanding, hybrid models that combine physical storage with cloud flexibility are gaining momentum. Micro SDs and SDs will continue in niches such as drones and surveillance, but consumer choices will increasingly be defined by sustainability, security, and reliability,” added Bhaskar Negi, Analyst – Industry Intelligence Group (IIG) at CyberMedia Research (CMR).
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Notes for Editors
- CyberMedia 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 Storage Flash Memory Market Review covers Micro SD cards, SD cards and Flash drives 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 consumer storage flash memory 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 consumer storage flash memory devices and not their absolute value. In the case of flash memory devices imported into the country, it represents the number leaving the first warehouse to OEMs, distributors and retailers.
