AI memory crunch kills the $100 phone: sub-$100 shipments down 60%

demian_ai · x · 2026-11-03

Samsung, SK hynix and Micron make nearly all smartphone memory chips and have redirected most supply to AI data centers since late 2025, leaving phone makers scrambling.
Per Rest of World citing IDC, sub-$100 phone shipments fell almost 60% YoY in Q2; that market shipped 173M phones last year, and Oppo's sub-$100 shipments in Southeast Asia dropped 96%.
Price hikes are uneven: phones cost 21% more in India, 18% in Middle East/Africa, but only 5% in the US. One analyst expects former sub-$150 models to land at $250-300.
Open question: will cheap phones return once new memory fabs open, or have phone makers stopped missing that tier?

More from Infra