Market research firm TrendForce anticipates that memory prices will “increase significantly” in the first quarter of 2026.
Consequently, smartphone and laptop manufacturers will likely turn to higher-priced products with diminished specifications.
Nearly every brand will feel the impact, including Apple. Despite its robust profitability, Apple may “reassess pricing strategies for new models and contemplate reducing or eliminating price cuts on older versions” due to the memory component taking a much larger share of an iPhone’s total bill of materials (BOM).
For low-end and midrange smartphones—where RAM serves as a crucial marketing differentiator and constitutes a significant portion of the BOM—brands may have no option but to raise prices in 2026. They might also need to adjust the lifecycle of existing models to mitigate losses.
TrendForce also forecasts that the memory shortage will compel laptop brands to modify their product lines, procurement strategies, and regional sales approaches.
This implies that high-end models will see significant price increases, and we may witness a return to laptops with only 8GB of RAM becoming the standard.
