A wave of price increases across this summer’s flagship smartphone launches offers the clearest evidence yet that the AI-driven memory shortage – often dubbed RAMageddon – is reshaping the mobile device market: what phones cost, how much memory they carry, and which models survive.
PC and laptop makers raised prices first; smartphone makers largely held off until this summer’s launches, says GlobalData, but the memory shortage is expected to keep pressure on smartphone prices.
Apple, Google, and Samsung raised prices by roughly $100 on premium smartphones, while Google and Samsung applied similar increases to their foldables. Apple’s first foldable, the iPhone Duo, tops out at $3 199 amid the memory crunch.
GlobalData’s latest report – AI-Driven RAMageddon Triggers First Wave of Smartphone Price Hikes – Further Increases and Fewer Choices Loom – reveals that AI infrastructure’s growing claim on memory supply is leaving phone makers to compete for what remains, suggesting that this summer’s price hikes are likely only the opening move.
Behind the price increases is the AI buildout. As AI data centres multiply, the companies building them are buying memory at enormous scale, paying premium prices, and signing multi-year commitments.
Alphabet and Meta alone expect to spend a combined $325-billion to $350-billion in 2026, much of it on servers and data centre infrastructure. That purchasing power is steering factory capacity and investment toward the higher-margin memory and storage products serving AI workloads, leaving less capacity for the DRAM and NAND used in smartphones and other consumer devices – and pushing device prices higher.
Amanda Mitchell, senior analyst – Telecoms Practice at GlobalData, comments: “Price hikes are only one way phone makers are responding to rising memory costs. Trimming specifications is another, and the economics become most punishing at the low end of the market. The pressure is also creating clear winners and losers: memory makers are reporting record numbers as limited supply and higher prices lift revenue and profits, while device makers compete for scarce chips and risk dampening consumer demand as higher prices arrive alongside lower specifications and threaten lower-end models.”
Google raised Pixel 11 prices while cutting base RAM in the Pro models from 16GB to 12GB. Cheaper phones feel the pressure most, since a memory cost increase that is manageable on a $1 200 flagship can erase the profit on a $200 phone. Consumers who rely on lower-cost phones could face fewer choices as manufacturers discontinue models, delay launches, or ship devices with less memory.
“Carriers are the last buffer between higher list prices and buyers,” Mitchell continues. “Longer instalment plans, trade-in credits, refurbished devices, and device-as-a-service offers can soften monthly payments, but they do not lower the total cost or ease the underlying supply shortage.
“Lasting relief depends on additional production capacity, but manufacturers’ expansion plans will take years to reach the market – and much of the new investment is intended to serve AI demand rather than consumer devices,” Mitchell says. “Samsung expects memory supply to remain tight through 2028, while Micron’s first New York fab is not expected to begin production until 2030. With meaningful new capacity years away, price pressure is likely to persist.”