{"id":448051,"date":"2026-02-27T06:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448051\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:51:10","slug":"smartphone-sales-could-be-in-for-their-biggest-drop-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448051\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone sales could be in for their biggest drop ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The smartphone industry could experience a record-breaking decline in 2026 as a result of the RAM shortage stemming from memory-hungry AI giants. That\u2019s according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idc.com\/resource-center\/press-releases\/wwsmartphoneforecast4q25\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest report from the International Data Corporation<\/a> (IDC), which forecasts smartphone shipments to plummet 12.9 percent this year, marking its \u201clowest annual shipment volume in more than a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">At the same time, the average selling price for smartphones is set to hit new highs, with IDC predicting a 14 percent increase to a record $523. \u201cWhile memory prices are projected to stabilize by mid-2027, they are unlikely to return to previous level,\u201d IDC senior researcher Nabila Popal says, adding that the sub-$100 phone segment will become \u201cpermanently uneconomical.\u201d Next week, Apple is rumored to announce a new edition of its budget smartphone as the \u201ciPhone 17e,\u201d which could give a hint about where things are going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The memory shortage is expected to impact budget-friendly Android smartphones the most, as the rising costs of components leave them with \u201cno choice but to pass the costs on to end users,\u201d Francisco Jeronimo, the vice president for IDC\u2019s Worldwide Client Devices, says in the report. That could result in smaller brands exiting the industry, while allowing Apple and Samsung to grab more market share, according to Popal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smartphone industry could experience a record-breaking decline in 2026 as a result of the RAM shortage stemming&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[786,2306,50,6994,227,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-gadgets","tag-mobile","tag-news","tag-phones","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}