Why Smartphones Could See Biggest Sales Decline in Decade: 'It Will Be More Than a Temporary Decline'
Smartphones (photo Pindiyath100, Dreamstime.com)
Global smartphone shipments could see their biggest annual decline in a decade, 13%, with RAM shortages the main factor, research firm IDC said. Price increases are also expected.
Last year, according to IDC data, 1.26 billion smartphones were shipped, and in 2026 the total number could drop to 1.12 billion, TechCrunch writes.
Apple was in first place last year with 247 million smartphones shipped, and Samsung fell to second place with a total of 241 million. In third place was Xiaomi, and the fourth and fifth places were occupied by Oppo and Vivo. The five companies had total cumulative shipments of 850 million units.
For this year, the decline comes mainly from the RAM crunch amid strong growth in AI and data center demand.
“The memory crisis will cause more than a temporary decline. It marks a structural reset of the entire market and fundamentally reshapes the overall market, the vendor landscape, and the product mix in the long term,” says Nabila Popal, research director at IDC.
He also said that due to the RAM shortage, the average selling price of a smartphone could increase by 14%.
The researcher also said that rising component costs could make sub-$100 smartphones completely unprofitable, so some of the companies making the cheapest phones could go out of business.
IDC expects RAM prices to stabilize by mid-2027.
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
