Memory Price Hikes Deepen Smartphone Shipment Pressure in 2026

Rising memory prices are expected to make the 2026 shipment decline steeper for smartphones than for notebooks, according to DigiTimes. The source says global smartphone shipments reached about 290 million units in the first quarter of 2026, down roughly 2% to 4% from a year earlier. The report frames memory as a key cost pressure for handset makers and channels. Smartphones are more exposed to bill-of-material swings when demand is soft, so higher memory costs can force vendors to adjust pricing, product mix, or shipment plans. Notebook shipments also declined sequentially, but the source indicates that the gap between the two categories is widening as the market absorbs higher component costs. For RamTrend, the signal is demand-side rather than supply-side: memory price increases are not only lifting component revenue, they are also changing device-market behavior. If handset vendors cut shipments or shift configurations, that could feed back into mobile DRAM and NAND demand over the rest of 2026.