Smartphone Market to Shrink 13% Due to Memory Crisis, IDC Says

The global smartphone market will contract 12.9% in 2026 because of the unprecedented memory chip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” according to researcher IDC.

The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that’s affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and now jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers.

IDC now sees roughly 1.1 billion mobile shipments in 2026, down from 1.26 billion the prior year ...