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According to data from market research firm IDC, smartphone shipments plunged 22% in Q3 due to rising memory chip costs, marking the steepest decline on record, and the situation could worsen further. IDC noted that over the past year, order demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) industry has driven up memory chip costs, severely eroding profitability across the entire handset industry and forcing producers to raise selling prices, lower product specifications, and abandon low-cost models aimed at budget-conscious consumers. IDC research director Nabila Popal said: "Current indicators show the market has not yet hit bottom. Memory chip costs have surged roughly 350% since last year and are still rising, putting enormous pressure on producers' margins and shipments. The worst is yet to come.

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AI servers are absorbing global memory supply, inflating smartphone costs. Counterpoint Research data show Q3 global handset shipments fell about 20% y-o-y, the weakest Q3 since 2012, with retail prices up 20%. Samsung raised Galaxy S26 prices on Oct. 1, seven months after launch, lifting the 256GB model by 150,000 won (111 USD) to 1.404 million won; Apple also raised iPhone 18 Pro prices. Chipmakers are shifting capacity to HBM and server DRAM, lifting NAND prices; TrendForce expects handset DRAM prices to rise 8-13% in Q3. Xiaomi's Q3 shipments fell over 30%, Oppo and Vivo over 20%; Samsung led with 23%. It cuts both ways for Samsung: its DS chip arm gains, while the DX division posted an 800 billion won (590 million USD) Q2 loss; Hana Securities sees a 2.1 trillion won (1.56 billion USD) Q3 loss.