Analysts are forecasting the worst-ever decline in the global smartphone market in 2026, as dwindling memory supplies continue to drive up prices of devices.
The worsening memory crisis could see the global PC and smartphone markets shrink by 11% and 13% respectively, according to a report from the International Data Corporation.
Meanwhile, Counterpoint Research is projecting a 12% year-on-year fall in global smartphone shipments in 2026 — the “sharpest decline on record,” with smartphone shipments this year expected to fall to their lowest annual volumes since 2013.
The warnings come as technology companies looking to cash in on the AI boom through aggressive investments in AI infrastructure are straining memory chip inventories, leaving manufacturers in other memory-intensive sectors, like smartphone and PC producers, scrambling to secure chip supplies.
“A lot of these memory companies are asking smartphone vendors to stand in line behind the hyperscalers, which means allocation [to smartphone vendors] is deprioritized over other segments in the industry — AI in this case,” Tarun Pathak, Counterpoint’s research director of devices and ecosystems, told CNBC.
