Global smartphone shipments record worst third quarter in 14 years amid memory shortage

JUST IN: Global smartphone shipments post their worst third quarter in 14 years as a memory chip shortage squeezes the industry.

Smartphone shipments just posted their worst third quarter in fourteen years.

Think about what was happening fourteen years ago. That's how far back you have to go to find a July to September this bad for the industry. And the culprit isn't weak demand, it's supply. Memory chips. The AI buildout is hoovering up every wafer of DRAM and flash storage on the planet, and phone makers are getting squeezed out of the queue. You can see the result right here, shelves full of devices that are getting more expensive to build.

That pain lands everywhere. Samsung at least makes its own memory, so it's selling shovels while everyone else digs. Apple and the Chinese brands are paying up or trimming specs, and those costs don't vanish, they show up on your receipt.

So the next phone you buy will quietly cost more because a data centre somewhere wanted the chips first. That's the trade.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.