According to experts from the market research company Counterpoint Research, the rising price of memory is emerging as a major obstacle for the smartphone industry, with the impact likely to be felt most strongly in the under 150 USD segment.
As chip manufacturers and memory providers increasingly focus on high-yield HBM high-band memory production to support the rapid expansion of data centers, higher supply and cost constraints are expected to affect the lower segment of the smartphone market.
Therefore, SoC suppliers with significant market share in the low-end 4G and 5G smartphone markets are expected to face the greatest pressure in 2026. Conversely, smartphone brands that are investing in internal SoC development, such as Samsung, Google, Huawei and Xiaomi, will have a better position to overcome the challenges of this market.
Commenting on market movements, senior analyst Shivani Parashar said: "Although the number of processing chips (SoC) for smartphones is expected to decrease in 2026, the market will continue to shift to a higher price segment.
The trend of high-end is still a clear trend, with nearly one-third of smartphones expected to cost over 500 USD by 2026, showing the sustainable demand of consumers for high-performance and more featured devices.
A complete recovery of smartphone shipments is unlikely to happen before 2027, as original device manufacturers (OEMs) continue to make short-term compromises, streamline product portfolios and explore strategies to transfer data to the cloud in the context of limited memory supply.
At the same time, the industry is entering a new technology transition phase, with leading SoC smartphone manufacturers expected to switch from a 3nm to a 2nm process by 2026.
Notably, Samsung announced the SoC of the world's first 2-nm smartphone, Exynos 2600, in December 2025, marking an important milestone in the production of advanced semiconductors.
Apple and Qualcomm are predicted to be the biggest beneficiaries of the current smartphone high-end trend. However, MediaTek also shows efforts in the Android smartphone market, which is expected to increase competition in the coming years.
Samsung is also witnessing a gradual increase in the application of high-end technology, suitable for the transition to the 2nm process for the upcoming Galaxy S26 phone line.
