Global Smartphone Shipments to Hit Record Low in 2026 Amidst Ongoing Memory Shortage Prices Expected to Rise: IDC

The last few months have seen the pressure on memory supplies from surging demand for AI, which has led to chip shortage in the global market. International Data Corporation (IDC) has said the global smartphone market will likely shrink this year as memory chip shortages have led to a “decrease” of smartphones. The market research firm says annual smartphone shipments are also expected to drop below their lowest levels in the last 10 years, according to reports from the company. The steepest declines are likely to be seen in areas where the most expensive smartphones dominate. IDC says the memory prices will stabilize by middle of 2027, but it expects that the industry will not return to its normal business if we have been paraphrased.

IDC Warns of Market Consolidation as Prices Rise

IDC says worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to drop 12 in its new report published Thursday, which is the latest one. Between 22026 and 1. percent year on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1 per cent, 9 percent of the time was spent by . One billion – units of . The smartphone market will reportedly be at its lowest annual shipment volume in over a decade, according to this decline.

The biggest threat is the global smartphone market, especially Android manufacturers, which has been a major hit for “The world’s smartphone industry”. The most likely suffers for vendors whose business is mostly at the low end of the market, or vice-versa. Fighting costs on rising component cost will be a cut off, and they’re not going to just pass the bill for end users,” said Francisco Jeronimo, Vice President of Worldwide Client Devices at IDC. He added that companies such as Apple and Samsung are better placed to cope with this crisis.

In addition, Jeronimo said that as smaller, low budget-based Android brands are under pressure, Apple and Samsung would be able to cope with the pressure while also strengthening their positions in the smartphone market and continuing to grow share of its respective companies.

Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said:

Rather than just an initial decline, > “The memory crisis” will be the structural reset of all market; it is fundamentally reshaping long-term TAM (Total Addressable Market) and its vendors landscape as well as the product mix. , ” and.

Her vision for industry consolidation is that small businesses leave market, while lower end vendors are seeing sharp declines in shipments due to tight supply constraints and low demand at higher price points. She notes that average selling prices (ASP) will rise 14 percent to a record $523 (roughly Rs). The shipments of s were down by 47,000 this year, but the number was on record decline.

While memory prices are expected to stabilize by mid-2027, they will not be back to the previous level – so is the sub-$100 (roughly Rs. A 9,000) segment of s was forever economically uneconomical, and the rest were permanently unsustainable. Nabila Popal said ‘It is not typical for vendors and consumers to return to business in the short term, no one does.

Markets with a high concentration of low-end smartphones will suffer the most, IDC notes. The most dramatic drop would be 20. YoY – 6 percent Yoya,’ . The decline of 10 is expected for China and the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan and China) to be a phraser in which Chinese and Asian Pacific are likely to lose. 1 per cent, and 13 percent). One percent of s, respectively.

The IDC predicts a modest 2 percent recovery that year when the crisessi will stabilize by mid-2027, followed by’strong 5th of strength’ in which it is expected to be recovered. A rebound of 2 percent year-on-year in 2028 for s is a result of two percent.