Smartphone shipments fall as memory costs rise
IDC and Omdia estimate that smartphone shipments fell at least 20 percent year on year in the third quarter as rising memory costs squeezed vendors.
Theme
Memory chips
3 stories · Updated
Timeline
October 2026
Global Memory Chip Shortage Caused By AI Boom Eliminates Cheap Smartphones
A global memory chip shortage driven by AI data center demand is driving up smartphone prices and making the world's cheapest mobile devices disappear.
July 2026
Samsung Says the Memory-Chip Shortage Could Last Into 2028
Demand from AI data centers is tightening memory supply, lifting chip prices and raising costs for phones, televisions, and other electronics.
