Global smartphone shipments fell 11% in the second quarter of this year, marking the lowest level since 2013, according to estimates from Counterpoint Research. To blame are soaring smartphone prices, driven incrementally higher as a global memory chip shortage worsens.
“The global memory crisis has now overtaken every other factor as the single biggest drag on the smartphone industry,” Counterpoint Research senior analyst Shilpi Jain said in the release. The AI boom and the unprecedented data center buildout have skyrocketed demand for high-bandwidth memory chips. With the trillions of dollars flowing into scaling AI globally, the top chipmakers have shifted their focus almost entirely to address the AI industry’s chip demand, albeit at the expense of consumer electronics manufacturers. With finite chipmaking capacity, consumer-level memory supply has dragged, causing delays and price hikes that have been undeniably passed on to consumers looking to buy gadgets that also rely on these memory chips, such as computers and smartphones. But the impact is not dealt equally. Demand for smartphones from Samsung and Apple in the second quarter was still pretty resilient, Counterpoint claims, with both phonemakers experiencing growth. Driven by the flagship Galaxy S26 series and fewer price hikes than some competitors, Samsung experienced the strongest growth in shipments.
